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EARLY FRIENDS 



MODERN PROFESSORS. 



EARLY FRIENDS 



MODERN PROFESSORS. 



REPLY TO " STRICTURES," BY 
JOSEPH JOHN GURNEY. 




^ ar wasW*S 



-^ / 



AUTHOR OF "THE TRUTH VINDICATED,' 1 






LONDON : 
EDMUND FRY AND SON, BISHOPSGATE STREET : 

AND. EDMUND FRY, JUN., PLYMOUTH. 
1836, 






*< 



London : Printed by J. Masters, 1, Long Lane, Aldersgate Street 



PREFACE. 



It was my intention, for the purpose of more 
fully exhibiting the contrast between the sentiments 
of our early Friends and those of the author of the 
" Strictures/' to have made a more precise and 
methodical arrangement of the quotations, but time 
will not admit. My plan was to have selected different 
passagesfrom the "Strictures/' and have separately 
headed them with the words, Modern Professor, 
and in the opposite line to have placed the words, 
Our Early Friends, followed by the appropriate 
quotations ; having however abandoned this plan, 
I must leave their application to the judgment of 
the reader. I had also intended to have marked 
in italics several of the Yearly Meeting's advices, 
contained in the Appendix to the " Strictures," for 
the purpose of showing how distinctly, in most of 
them, the paramount authority of the Spirit is 



VI 



marked; and how entirely dependent the Scrip- 
tures are represented to be for efficiency upon the 
enlightening influence thereof; but from the cause 
just mentioned^ I must leave this also with a 
general^ though earnest request that attention may 
be directed thereto. 

The author of the " Strictures" has told us that 
he has " less difficulty" in making remarks upon 
my work, (i because" he " does not know even the 
name of the author." What "difficulties" names 
may throw in his way, I am not competent to say. 
Whether the name simply, without reference to 
any thing else, creates the difficulty ; or whether 
the difficulties vary with the name; as associated 
with rank; station; prejudice; or partial ity, I do 
not know ; but I must confess that this considera- 
tion has had no weight with me. "Our author's" 
name has presented no u difficulties" to my mind; 
unless it has been that of fear that error with a 
name; might; in the eyes of some weak ones, 
appear more fascinating than truth without a name. 

I hope that the quotations in this pamphlet will 
be the means of inducing the reader to go to the 
works themselves; replete as they are with instruc- 
tive and interesting matter. It is the constant endea- 
vour of the BeaconiteS; in their unprofitable and prosy 



Vll 

essays, to bring these writings into disrepute, and 
charge those who value and recommend them with 
placing them upon " the same shelf with Holy 
Writ." And yetsome of these essayists recommend 
other works for the Society's perusal, the authors of 
many of which are not in unity either with Friends 
or their principles. I was noticing the other day in 
one of these dull treatises, two works I think, re- 
commended to our notice upon the ground that 
they would be peculiarly servicable to Friends at 
the present time. Richard Ball also refers to 
several works, in his " Test of Truth," whilst 
he deprecates a reference to the works of our early 
Friends, and wofully misrepresents their opinions. 
A mass of confusion about " mysticism," assists 
to the disfigurement of his work, the mate- 
rials of which are furnished from the writings of 
Mosheim, a German scribe, who in his Ecclesi- 
astical History, has been guilty of geat injustice 
towards the Society of Friends, stating, amongst 
other falsehoods, that they have preachers with a 
small fixed salary attached to their office , in which 
he is followed by his late translator, Archibald 
Maclaine, a Scotch " hireling and deceiver." 
Isaac Crewdson also, has republished a work of 
Richard Baxter's, a man, who, says Francis How- 



Vlll 



gill, " wrote many lying books against the truth." 
So that the Society would be turned upside down 
by these men, if they are suffered to proceed with- 
out interruption. Recommend the early Friends' 
productions, and they lift up their hands, and cry 
aloud, "horrible ! horrible ! to direct to the writings 
of fallible men, instead of the word of God." 
But read their injurious aspersions upon the cha- 
racters of those holy men and their principles, — 
read those works that they in their wisdom are so 
condescending as to recommend, then you are 
"an evangelical Friend, and a Bible Christian." 
I should like to have bestowed a little more time 
upon this reply, but it should now be out. I must 
claim therefore some indulgence for the errors 
that may appear in the composition. 



EARLY FRIENDS 



MODERN PROFESSORS. 



INTRODUCTION. 

I should not have considered it necessary to have taken 
any public notice of the Pamphlet to the contents of 
which I am about to reply, had it not come forth to the 
world with a name, the authority of which may be cal- 
culated to supply its deficiencies in truth and argument, 
and pass off the unfounded assertions, contradictions^ 
unwarrantable inferences, and unjust conclusions, which 
it contains, for the truth of that everlasting Gospel, the 
spirituality of which, it has a most decided tendency to 
depreciate. 

Nor shall the name, rank, or station, of the Author 
of M Strictures on certain parts of an Anonymous Pam- 
phlet, entitled 'the Truth Vindicated' '' deter me from 
characterising those " Strictures" by those christian 
terms of censure and disapprobation, which their anti- 
scriptural nature demands for them, nor screen the 
Author himself from that just reproof which is his due, 
who, as a professed Minister of the Gospel of our Lord 



Jesus Christ, declares that it " involves the danger of 
a fatal heresy, to denominate our Lord Jesus Christ A 
Ruler 

I feel it incumbent upon me, to impress with earnest- 
ness and solemnity upon the minds of all my readers 
the vast importance of the subject under debate. It is 
not whether Holy Scriptures are Scriptures of truth ; 
for such they are reverently, fully, and unreservedly ac- 
knowledged to be. It is not whether such Holy Scrip- 
tures exceed in purity, truth, and every point of com- 
parative excellence, " all the writings in the world 
besides;" but it is whether these writings, thus incom- 
parably excellent, are to take precedence as a guide 
and rule for our faith and practice, or as an immediate 
object of affection in our hearts, before " Christ the 
way, the truth, and the life ;" the spiritual Rock of which 
all the Fathers drank, long — long before the greater part 
of the Scriptures were written. 

This, my dear friends, is the principle that is sought 
to be controverted — this is the ever blessed principle, 
which those " who say they are Jews but are not," 
those who say they are Quakers but are not, seek to 
subvert and to destroy. Some avow it openly, some 
advance it covertly, but the aim of them all is against 
the same object. Although their modes of attack are 
various, their cause is the same; although their weapons 
are diverse, they are all obtained from the same Ar- 
moury ; but, like the arrow of aged Priam, they will 
fall infinitely short of the mark ; they will come to the 
ground without a stroke, for they have attempted to 
pierce that, " which will resist all the fiery darts of the 
wicked one, 1 ' and how should they succeed ? they have 



attempted to shake that which is immoveable, how 
should they not be defeated ? 

How often has this battle been fought ! How often has 
darkness sent forth its powers, even transformed as the 
angels of light ? but praises to God, it has been over- 
come " by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of 
their testimony, who loved not their lives unto the 
death." And against the many deceptive appearances 
of this unwearied enemy, the advice of dear George 
Fox contained in an Epistle "writ with his own 
hand," and opened and read in the Yearly Meeting, 
after his death, appears to me at this time, especially 
worthy of our attention. ' ' As for this spirit of rebellion 
and opposition," he writes, " that hath risen formerly 
and lately, it is out of the kingdom of God and heavenly 
Jerusalem ; and is for judgment and condemnation, with 
all its books, words, and works. Therefore Friends 
are to live and walk in the power and Spirit of God 
that is over it, and in the seed that will bruise and 
break it to pieces. In which seed you have joy and 
peace with God, and power and authority to judge it ; 
and your unity is in the power and Spirit of God, that 
doth judge it, all God's witnesses in his tabernacle go 
out against it, and always have and will/' 

In the Advertisement to the " Strictures," the Author 
tells us that his " sole object in making them has 
been to uphold the divine authority of the Holy Scrip- 
ture ; and to prove that the author of ' the Truth 
Vindicated/ who comes forward under the profession 
of being an Advocate for our religious society, advances 
sentiments extremely dangerous in themselves, and 
utterly opposed to those which Friends have always 



felt it to be their duty and privilege to uphold.'' To this 
I may reply, far be it from me to denounce so good an 
"object" as that of upholding the divine authority of 
the Holy Scriptures ; this however, was not my "-sole 
object," in writing " the Truth Vindicated/' I must 
confess my chief object was to uphold the " paramount 
authority of that Source from whence the Holy Scrip- 
tures emanated, from which source alone they derive 
their Authority, and by whose unerring and infallible 
testimony their contents can alone be justly apprecia- 
ted, rightly understood, or indubitably attested. With- 
out this witness, I can have no satisfactory assurance to 
my understanding of the facts recorded, and the truths 
and doctrines which are declared, not even from such 
respectable vouchers as Joseph John Gurney, or those 
" ministers of various Christian communities" who 
trade out of them, and upon whose behalf his " feelings 
as a man, and his principles as a Christian," have expe- 
rienced so great a shock. As for my coming forward 
<c under the profession of being an advocate for our re- 
ligious Society," I profess, in the character of an 
Advocate, no more than what I really am; and whilst 
Joseph John Gurney has, in his Pamphlet, (as some of 
old from Sampson,) shorn that away in which the 
strength and spirit of our testimonies consist, he gives 
us, upon the other hand, an image of Quakerism, which 
like the image in Nebuchadnezzar's dream, is composed 
of perishable materials, though strong they may appear 
as iron and brass, and which the (l Stone that was cut 
out of the mountain without hands," will most assuredly 
break to pieces. 



Now, as the subjects touched upon in these " Stric- 
tures," will be somewhat fully entered into in my 
intended reply to Richard Ball, I shall reply to J. J. 
Gurney principally by quotations from our early 
Friends, so that their writings may return his charges 
upon himself, and evince to all sincere and impartial 
inquirers after truth, that it is He, and not I that is 
" opposed to those sentiments which Friends have 
always felt it to be their > duty and privilege to uphold," 

Let Friends bear in mind the circumstances under 
which " the Truth Vindicated" was written, and the 
occasion which produced it. A minister of high repute 
and long standing in the Society had published a work, 
<( the main drift of which," says the Meeting for Suffer- 
ings of Indiana Yearly Meeting, appears to be an 
attempt to draw the Society away from the precious 
testimonies it has borne to the spirituality of the gospel 
dispensation ; and to lead its members into the use of 
those external forms and ceremonies, in relation to acts 
of worship, out of which our forefathers were led by 
the immediate direction of the Holy Spirit, in the faith 
of our Lord Jesus Christ ; and through deep religious 
exercise, and much outward suffering were gathered 
into a distinct and religious Society. Well, this work, 
remember, was approved and circulated by men of high 
station and influence in the Society, and applauded al- 
most without exception by all the hireling ministries, 
and their presses throughout the country. Backed by 
this support, many who had cherished similar sentiments 
in secret, now no longer concealed them, but made as 
it were a simultaneous rush to effect their purpose by a 
coup de main. The war cry was raised — the different 

b2 



6 

Reviews and Magazines teemed with the blackest false- 
hoods against the principles of the Society ; and the old 
spirit of Cain seemed afresh revived, ready to shed 
innocent blood. But thanks be to God, this spirit, so 
far as the christian church is concerned, has lost much 
of its power, and can now do little more than rave. A 
small Pamphlet now appeared, containing extracts from 
these reviews, which falling in my way, I purchased 
and read, and to which I believed it was my duty to 
reply, the result of which was " the Truth Vindicated." 
I was staying at a place where I was completely sepa- 
rated from the Society, neither did I communicate my 
intentions to any but my wife, nor did I know from any 
source but this Pamphlet, of the existing controversy 
in the Society ; but what is a fact not a little singu- 
lar, is this, that after I had written perhaps the first 
two or three chapters, I thought I would send it to 
Joseph John Gurney, thinking from his repute in the 
Society, that he was a sound Friend, and requesting his 
perusal of the manuscript, in order that it might be as 
perfect and cogent, as it appeared to me the state of 
things required. I did not however feel easy under 
this intention, and I now rejoice that it was aban- 
doned. 

Finding then those "precious testimonies of our fore- 
fathers thus violently assailed, " both from within and 
without, I may truly say, that I was " jealous over you 
my dear friends, with a godly jealousy," and feared, 
lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through 
his subtil ty, so your minds should be corrupted from 
the simplicity that is in Christ. Knowing that God had 
committed at least one talent to my charge, and believ- 



ing it to be my duty to repel the accusations and false 
charges of our adversaries, I fearlessly, though anony- 
mously, testified against them, and right glad I am, that 
I have done so. Your Delilahs had laid you asleep, 
my friends, and were sporting with your helplessness ; 
but, remember, that He who first gave us strength, can 
again renew it. He that is mighty can yet give power 
to drown the shouts of the Philistines in the ruins of their 
temple. " All friends every where, that are alive to 
God through Jesus Christ, and are living members of 
Christ the Holy Head ; be still, and stand still in the 
Lord's camp of holiness and righteousness, and therein 
see the salvation of God, and your eternal life, rest, and 
peace." 

Far be it from me to encourage that rashness, which 
in its own strength would put forth its hand to save 
M the tottering ark," but it is matter of no little astonish- 
ment, that a professed minister of the gospel should 
ft studiously avoid all allusion to the controversy that 
gave rise to " the Truth Vindicated," which was written 
expressly to assert and maintain the supreme, uncondi- 
tional, unrestricted, and universal authority of that Holy 
Spirit which can alone ordain one, in opposition to 
those who irreverently deny his paramount authority ; 
it does seem extraordinary, that Joseph John Gurney, 
who writes about " substantial testimonies," should 
have suffered the specious, indirect, and serpentine 
attacks which are levelled in •' the Beacon" against some 
of the most valuable and solid testimonies that have 
been committed to our charge,- — should have suffered 
its half revealed sarcasms upon spiritual worship — its 
hints and nods at mysticism and quietism, nay its open 



repudiation of the universal saving light of Christ, to be 
" circulated among the families of a Christian Society, " 
without publishing one single " stricture" thereon, " by 
way of christian warning ;" ' ' knowing that it has obtained 
a very considerable circulation," how is it, Joseph John, 
thou hast not thought it right to extract several pas- 
sages from this work also ? Thou say est, thou hast " less 
difficulty' ' in making remarks upon mine, because thou 
dost " not know even the name of the Author. 1 ' But 
perhaps this difficulty presented itself in its full force, 
and restrained thy " Strictures" in the case of the Bea- 
con, as the name of Isaac Crewdson, a minister perhaps 
in good esteem with thee, has given it its price current 
among hirelings and professors." This is, perhaps, 
susceptible of as plain an answer as " our Author's 
taunting inquiries," elsewhere. 

A person ignorant of the nature of the present con- 
troversy, would be led to infer from thy " Advertise- 
ment," that I had actually been writing against " the 
divine authority of the Holy Scriptures/' As much is 
assumed in the avowed " sole object" of thy " Stric- 
tures ;" but have I throughout my book mentioned or 
alluded to any production, that is now extant in the 
world, as equal in point of degree to the books of what 
are usually called the Old and New Testament ? As to 
the identity of the source, I shall speak with thee farther 
on. Neither my design, nor the prosecution of that 
design in the work itself, detracts from their divine 
authority ; but on the contrary tends to establish it. 
For without the testimony of the Spirit, who or what am 
I to believe ? If, however " I know of a truth" that in 
the light of Christ all things that are necessary for me 



to know, will be there revealed, as I walk in obedience to 
its manifestations— if Christ promised the Holy Spirit 
to his disciples to lead them into all truth; if those things 
that Christ spoke of are hidden from the wise and 
prudent, and are revealed unto babes ; if the vail is still 
over the hearts of the descendants of that people who 
crucified our Lord ; if, after several thousand years' 
possession, of some of the Scriptures at least ; if, in 
constantly reading them, and blindly venerating the 
mere book itself, they nevertheless know them not; what, 
I ask, but the power of God's Holy Spirit, can give 
them the stamp of divine authority, reveal them to my 
understanding, and seal their testimony to my soul ? 
If this witness however to their truth be wanting, if we 
need man to teach us, if the labours of many " eminent 
biblical critics" are requisite to give us higher views 
"of the substantial correctness of the text," it then 
rests upon man's authority, and not God's, and the poor 
Jews may, with good reason, keep to the canon and 
interpretations of their Rabbies — the Roman Catholics 
to that of their Popes and Cardinals — the Protestants to 
that of their bishops and multitudes of curiously titled 
priests ; and the Society of Friends may sell their glo- 
rious birthright as did Esau — and betake themselves to 
pottage. 

The Author of the " Strictures" has annexed to his 
Pamphlet, Appendices, two of which consist of quota- 
tions made from the writings of friends in their indivi- 
dual, as also in their collective capacity, in confirmation 
of their opinion " respecting the divine origin and 
authority of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New 
Testament." Why, in all the deistical passages, as he 



10 

is pleased to call them, quoted into his Pamphlet, he 
can by no means point out a denial of their divine origin 
and authority ; nay, this is the very thing contended for, 
this source, this authority, this testimony is upheld 
plainly, strenuously, and unconditionally, and the autho- 
rity and testimony of canon-makers, " ultimate appeal' * 
makers, and " eminent biblical critics/' put just where 
they ought to be ; although Joseph John, with offensive 
pedantry, presumes that his bare assertions of " false" 
and "audacious," are sufficient to secure the assent of 
his readers, without the irksome task of burthening 
their understandings with facts and proofs. 

I unite, cordially unite, with all the quotations that 
he has made from Friends' writings, and I will offer 
to his observation some more, in which also I unite. 
Joseph John has given us but a side view of Quakerism ; 
he has given us the profile, and would fain make us 
believe that it has no full face. Its profile, however, is 
given to us disfigured, after the shadow of an image, 
that recent times have fashioned, whilst Friends of the 
elder sort, as Fox, Penn, and Barclay, who are one 
hundred and fifty years " below the truth" of " biblical 
critics, " must be daubed over with " the untempered 
mortar" of the day, and " mysticism, quietism, and 
fanaticism," " under the garb of high spirituality," 
be stamped upon their foreheads, in conformity with 
the wishes of hireling priests and idol shepherds. 

But see throughout the whole of these quotations 
from advices and declarations, how they " gave" (in the 
words of one of them) " a preference to the Holy Spirit, 
as all true spiritual christians do ;" very excellent advices 
and declarations, and doubtless very appropriate all of 



11 

them to the state and condition of the body to which 
they were applied. They doubtless afford us good evi- 
dence of the promptness of those meetings to afford to 
the body that assistance which their condition required ; 
and my prayer to God is, that ability may be mercifully 
vouchsafed at the approaching annual assembly, to 
"strengthen the weak hands, and confirm the feeble 
knees," that are amongst us ; and whilst a due love and 
esteem for Holy Scriptures may be encouraged, Christ 
Jesus may be " exalted over all, Godblessed for ever." 
I repeat, that one would suppose by these copious 
quotations, illustrative of the Society's esteem for Holy 
Scriptures, that I had been writing against the truths of 
revelation, and attempting to subvert them by evil 
men's authority. Does Joseph John suppose, that any 
of these advices were issued under circumstances which 
bear the least resemblance to the circumstances under 
which he has quoted from them. Look at the powerful 
array both from within and from without, against the an- 
cient testimonies of the Society; consider as a Teople how 
faithless and rebellious we have been — -how dry, barren, 
and unfruitful we are — how the testimony of the Pro- 
phet might be sounded forth amongst us, "Earth, 
Earth, EARTH, hear the word of the Lord." Con- 
sider of these things, if ye are not too proud and high- 
minded ; but whether ye will hear, or whether ye will 
forbear," ye shall be told of these things. " Let every 
one's faith," said George Fox, " stand in the power of 
God, which Jesus Christ is the Author of- that all mav 
know their crown of life. For all outward things with- 
out the substance, the life, the power, are as the husk 
without the kernel," (they are no "lively oracles") and 



12 

do not nourish the immortal soul, nor the new born babe ; 
but that which it is nourished by, is the milk of the word, 
whereby it groweth in the heavenly life, strength, and 
wisdom. The Gospel is not of man, nor by man, but it is 
the power of God, and answers the truth in all." 

The Author of the " Strictures'' has now raised the 
question, whether the doctrines contained in M The 
Truth Vindicated," are those that were held and pub- 
lished by the Early Friends. He has plainly stated, that 
the extracts he has made from it are utterly opposed to 
those which Friends have always felt it to be their duty 
and privilege to uphold;" and yet he has made but one 
single quotation, throughout the whole of his Pamphlet 
that bears upon the point ; and that one, is in reference 
to a qualified expression (" dead letter") but which will 
avail nothing to his purpose, as we shall see further on. 
All his other quotations refer simply to the Divine 
source from whence Holy Scriptures emanated, and the 
consequent superiority of their character, over all other 
writings besides, from which another consequence as 
necessarily flows, viz. that they constitute " the only fit 
outward judge of controversies among Christians; 1 ' none 
of which things are disputed in M The Truth Vindica- 
ted," but, notwithstanding his assertions, are all therein 
acknowledged; and the testimony of Holy Scripture 
admitted, and applied, upon the very strength of that 
acknowledgment, viz, their divine origin, "all Scripture 
is given by inspiration of God."* None of these quota- 
tions therefore will avail him a single straw, in proof of 
his erroneous assertion. 

* All Holy Scripture is understood here. 



13 

I shall bring in the course of the following pages, a 
body of plain and incontrovertible evidence which can- 
not fail of convincing the most obstinate and prejudiced, 
that I have not advanced a sentiment in "The Truth 
Vindicated," which can in common propriety and fair- 
ness be said to be opposed in any degree, much less 
"utterly opposed" to those views and sentiments which 
were held, at least by the Early Friends. 

That " Characteristic of the people called Quakers, their 
faith and testimony to the world, viz. the light of Christ 
within," (Penn's Christian Quaker, Chap 1.) is brought 
down by the author of the " Strictures," to a very feeble 
sort of illumination, and acknowledged en passant, as if 
its eternal, universal, and saving properties, had never 
been made subject of dispute. The acknowledgment 
he does make to its power, appears to be more the re- 
sult of the victory which education and custom have 
obtained over his understanding, than the conviction 
which truth has made upon his heart. "The labours of 
eminent biblical critics," seem to have thrusted out 
sound and genuine Quakerism.. The Author's aim, 
and without the excuse which ignorance may sometimes 
claim, does indeed appear to have been, to exalt the 
Scriptures to the very highest pinnacle, in obedience to 
the authority of Priests and Scribes ; and at the same 
time, by a sort of qualified admission to the superiority 
of the Spirit, to save his credit as a Quaker. But I hope 
there is sufficient discernment in the Society to see 
through the disguise. I do hope there yet remains 
sufficient strength in the Body, to uphold our testi- 
monies in their primitive truth and fulness. Oh ! it is 
indeed incumbent upon us to keep low, to keep down 

c 



14 

self — to become as little children, and seek for living 
help and judgment, from Christ our Saviour. 

Before I proceed to a detailed examination of the 
" Strictures," I think it right to say a few words in 
respect to myself. As the Author of the Strictures has 
been informed, that I am not a Member of the Society, 
I think it right to inform my readers, that I was born a 
Member, educated a Member, and have never yet had 
a testimony of disownment issued against me. Joseph 
John may weigh this information, which is the truth, 
with the information that has given him " some satis- 
faction," and perhaps, he will not even then be able to 
tell which scale kicks the beam. But although, says 
he, no testimony of disownment may have been issued 
against him, he still perhaps is not a Member of our 
Society, for he may, like John Wilkinson, have sent in 
his resignation : well, if it be so, which I still leave to 
conjecture ; if I have resigned my membership, I have 
not resigned my principles ; far better, in my choice, 
than the state of those, who, reversing the terms, re- 
sign the principles, and retain the membership. 

I also think it right to say, that I do not as a gene- 
ral mode, approve of anonymous controversy ; but, I do 
believe those speciel reasons, which have induced me to 
adopt it, are a full and valid justification. " Fear of 
man" is not amongst them, and should the time arrive, 
in which it would be my duty to stand forth in my own 
name and person, I trust I should be obedient to the 
call, and in full reliance upon Him, whose strength is 
almighty, and whose promise is eternally sure, I doubt 
not but I should be sustained through all the trials that 
might await me, and if " faithful unto death, receive a 
crown of life. 1 " 



15 

Among the works from which I shall make quota- 
tions, will be those of Francis Howgill and Samuel 
Fisher, — works which have been published by and with 
the consent of the Morning Meeting, and to which 
Works themselves, several important testimonies of in- 
dividuals are annexed, expressive of unqualified unity, 
in the sentiments which they contain. Of Samuel 
Fisher, George Fox in his journal writes, (3d Ed. folio, 
page 139,) " Samuel Fisher received the truth in the 
love of it, became a faithful minister, preached Christ 
freely, and laboured much, being moved of the Lord to 
go and declare the word of life at Dunkirk, in Holland, 
and in divers parts of Italy, as Leghorn and Rome 
itself; yet the Lord preserved him and his companion 
John Stubbs out of their inquisitions/' 

Thus much as to the man ; now read his testimony to 
the work itself, from which I shall make quotations in 
the following pages. In an Epistle to the Presbyte- 
rians and Independants, written by George Fox, and 
John Stubbs, and prefixed to a Pamphlet, written by 
George Whitehead, entitled, "The Divinity of Christ," 
&c. is this passage, ie I wonder for all this idle time you 
have had, that you could not answer Samuel Fisher's 
Book amongst you, for it stands upon your heads ; he 
hath answered all your principles and more than you have 
questioned!" 

In George Whitehead's answer to " Thomas Danson's 
Synopsis of Quakerism," he speaks of Samuel Fisher's 
Work in the following terms ; and George Whitehead, 
mind, is by the Author of the " Strictures" said to be 
" one of the most eminent of our early Friends," And 
thus at length the Spirit or Light that gave forth the 
Scriptures, must be preferred as the most universal 



1G 

Guide and Rule ; as indeed it is to all them who follow, 
obey, and believe in it ; and this Light the blind, corrupt 
imaginary Teachers (whose knowledge and profession 
is but natural and traditional) cannot corrupt, as they 
have done the Scripture by their false glosses, meanings and 
private interpretations, contrary to the end and intent of 
the Spirit of God which gave them forth, and which 
leads into all Truth and Righteousness : for a farther 
answer to T. D., touching this matter, I do refer the 
reader to S. Fisher's Book titled Rusticus ad Academicos."* 
Well, for a farther answer (not to T. D. but) to J. J. G., 
I intend to adopt G. Whitehead's advice, and refer to 
" Rusticus ad Academicos ;" Again, George Whitehead, 
(page 27,) " Concerning this particular, that faithful 
servant of the Lord S. Fisher, hath very fully answered 
T. D., and his brethren." — " See S. Fisher's Rusticus 
ad Academicos,* where the point is fully explained, 
which you Presbyterians and Independents are never 
able to answer. ," 

Again, George Whitehead, (page 21) " Here T. D. 
hath but brought over his old arguments long since 
answered and confuted by that servant of the Lord S. 
Fisher, as may be seen at large in his Book Rusticus ad 
Academicos, which T. D., J. O. and their Brethren could 
never answer: 1 ' nor J. J. G., I. C. and their Brethren 
either. 

In proof then, that the principles exhibited in " The 
Truth Vindicated," are the principles of sound and 
genuine Quakerism, I shall make quotations from the 
writings of Fox, Penn, Barclay, Whitehead, Howgill, 

* Ellis Hookes, who gives a strong testimony of approbation to the 
«' Rusticus," was I believe the first Clerk to the first Yearly Meeting 
of the Society. 



17 

Bayley, Penington, Claridge, and Fisher, to "whose Rus- 
ticus ad Academicos, George Whitehead, f* one of the 
most eminent of our early Friends, " expressly refers 
his readers, for " a farther answer," upon the very point 
in debate. And moreover the quotations, which I in- 
tend to make, shall be straight and direct to the point. 
I will screw the Author of the •« Strictures" up to the 
mark, and compel him either to retract his assertion, 
that the sentiments advanced in " The Truth Vindica- 
ted, are utterly opposed to those which Friends have 
always felt it be their duty and privilege to uphold/* 
or else, that his Quakerism is not the Quakerism of the 
above-named worthies, and first Ministers of the So- 
ciety. Many other Authors might be quoted, but I 
have not their works. The above are quite sufficient. 
They shall " stand like a w T all of brass/' as the Friend 
said at Liverpool, and the shots which the Author of the 
'■ Strictures" has discharged at their testimonies, 
through the sides of " The Truth Vindicated," shall 
reverberate with redoubled force upon his own Pam- 
phlet, and shatter it to pieces. 

Nor shall his attempt to amalgamate these principles 
with those of Hicksism succeed. They are no more 
Hicksism than they are Gurneyism ; but they are sound, 
substantial, original, scripture, and Christian Quakerism. 
I will not suffer the authority of this Friend's Name 
to pass off his bare assertions, as unquestionable truths. 
"By Joseph John Gurney," may perhaps cause some 
weak persons to open their bodily eyes wider, and shut 
their intellectual and spiritual ones closer, but not 
from the example that I shall show them ; unless I do 
the latter, to turn away from beholding his errors. 

c 2 



18 

and the former in astonishment, that one, who has for 
many years occupied the station of a Minister, should 
betray such a culpable ignorance of the original prin- 
ciples of the Society, or such a strange perversion of 
them as his Pamphlet evinces. 

I shall not, as I have said before, answer his *' Stric- 
tures," so much by my own arguments as by quota- 
tions from the works of the early Friends ; and for two 
reasons, first, because I shall thereby more clearly iden- 
tify the principles of "The Truth Vindicated' , with 
theirs ; and also, because whatever arguments I, or 
any writer may now advance, they cannot surpass in 
truth, strength, and clearness, the host of insurmount- 
able demonstrations, with which the early Friends were 
enabled to meet the crafty and stubborn opponents of 
their day. I am not surprised at the deserters and oppo- 
nents of our time, attempting to throw into obloquy 
those sterling and christian writings. In so doing, they 
" are wiser in their generation than the children of 
light." They w T ell know, how they harmonize with 
Holy Scriptures, and that they elucidate, with convin- 
cing clearness, those important essential doctrines of the 
Christian faith, which it is the vain endeavour of our 
opponents, not to obscure only, but to extirpate. 



19 



THE -STRICTURES" EXAMINED. 

Passing by the Author's expressions of " much sorrow/' 
"some satisfaction," and the extraordinary stretch of 
Christian charity, which can even wish well to an 
anonymous Author, — passing by these important 
" Strictures," with just observing, that Joseph John 
can be ironical himself at times, as well as others ; I 
come to his first charge against The Truth Vindicated, 
which is made in general terms, and according to his 
own confession unsupported by a single extract. 

" The first point which naturally attracts the at- 
tention of the reader of ' The Truth Vindicated,' 
is the Anti- Christian spirit and temper in which many 
passages of it are written, and the unseemly and vio- 
lent language which the Author employs in reference 
to the Ministers and Members of various Christian com- 
munities. I forbear from making extracts in support 
of this remark, being well assured that no sober and 
religious person, who has cast his eye over the book, 
can fail to have observed a variety of expressions, 
under this head, which must have greatly shocked both 
his feelings as a man, and his principles as a Christian." 

Now, I can inform Joseph Gurney, that I have re- 
ceived letters expressive of the most cordial unity with 
" The Truth Vindicated/' from individuals, whose 
names, and well-known characters, insure for them the 
denominations of " sober and religious," with as much 
propriety as they can be assumed for himself and his 



20 

associates in thought and deed. He makes a charge' 
and yet " forbears from making extracts in support of 
it." This however, procures for him all the honour to 
which a subtle disputant is entitled, although it dis- 
qualifies him from discharging the duties of even a com- 
mon juryman. It manifests the " wisdom of the ser- 
pent," though devoid of the harmlessness of the dove. 
No, no, sapient determination, he will not descend to 
particulars, well knowing, that each separate denuncia- 
tion against the hirelings, contained in "The Truth 
Vindicated," can summon the testimony of Scriptural 
authority, and the example of the best of Christians 
in all ages for its truth. He, therefore wraps them all 
up in one general bundle of condemnation, and marks on 
the exterior— " unseemly and violent," — "Ministers 
of various Christian communities," called by the " Jnti- 
Christian" name of hirelings, and the like — " not to be 
opened,'' — "not a single extract made therefrom, lest 
our feelings should be shocked as men, and our princi- 
ples as Christians." Well, we will make a few quota- 
tions from some of the writings of our early Friends, 
upon the subject of these t€ Ministers of various Christian 
communities," and run the hazard of shocking the 
peculiarly sensitive feelings of the Author of the 
" Strictures." 

George Fox's Journal, Third Edition, Page 376. — " In 
the time of the law, those that did not bring their tithes into 
the store-house robbed God ; then there was not meat in their 
house ; therefore the Lord commanded, ' To bring them into 
his house, that there might be meat in the store-house, which 
was to feed the fatherless, stranger, and widow.' But these 
pi^iests who are counterfeits, who take people's tithes now by a 



21 

law, are from the beast; and if they will not pay them, they 
prison them, or make them pay treble. These rob the poor, 
rob the fatherless, and the stranger and widow are not tilled : 
so their cry is gone up to heaven against these. Many are 
made almost beggars by these oppressing priests, their cattle 
and corn being taken away from them, and they cast into prison. 
Others are sued at law by the priests, and have treble damage 
taken from them; yet such priests are cried up to be ministers 
of the gospel. Though when the unchangeable Priest was 
come; the priesthood that was changeable was denied, as we 
now deny these." 

Page 24. — " But the black earthly spirit of the priest 
wounded my life : and when I heard the bell toll to call people 
together to the steeple-house, it struck at my life; for it was 
like a market-bell to gather the people that the priest might set 
forth his ware to sale. Oh ! the vast sums of money that are 
got by the trade they make of selling the scriptures, and by 
their preaching, from the highest bishop to the lowest priest! 
What one trade else in the world is comparable to it ? notwith- 
standing the scriptures were given forth freely, Christ com- 
manded his ministers to preach freely, and the Prophets and 
Apostles denounced judgment against all covetous hirelings 
and diviners for money. But in this free spirit of the Lord 
Jesus, was I sent forth to declare the word of life and reconcilia- 
tion freely, that all might come to Christ, who freely gives, and 
renews up into the image of God, which man and woman were 
in before they fell, that they might sit down in the heavenly 
places in Christ Jesus." 

Page 123. — " The priests cried, Come, to argument, to argu- 
ment ! I said, I denied all their voices, for they were the 
voices of ( hirelings and strangers.' They cried, Prove it, 
prove it ! I directed them to the tenth of John, where they 
might see what Christ said of such ; he declared, ' He was the 
true Shepherd, that laid down his life for his sheep, and his 
sheep heard his voice and followed him ; but the hireling 
would fly when the wolf came, because he was an hireling : I 



22 

offered to prove that they were such hirelings. Then the 
priests plucked me off from bass again, and themselves fell all 
upon basses under the steeple-house wall. Then I felt the 
mighty power of God arise over all, and told them, if they 
would give audience, and hear me quietly, I would show them 
by the Scriptures why I denied those eight priests or teachers 
that stood before me, and all the hireling teachers of the world 
whatsoever, and I would give them Scriptures for what I said. 
Whereupon both priests and people consented. Then I showed 
them out of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Micah, Malachi and 
other Prophets, that they were in the steps of such as God 
sent his true Prophets to cry against ; for, said I, You are such 
as the Prophet Jeremiah cried against, chap. 5th, when he said 
1 The Prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule 
by their means ;' which he called an horrible filthy thing. You 
are such as used their tongues, and said, Thus saith the Lord, 
when the Lord never spoke to them. Such as followed their 
own spirits and saw nothing ; but spoke a divination of their 
own brain : and by their lies and their lightness caused the 
people to err, Jer. 14. You are such as they were that 
sought their gain from their quarter ; that were as greedy dumb 
dogs, that could never have enough, whom the Lord sent his 
Prophet Isaiah to cry against, Isaiah 54. You are such as 
they were who taught for handfuls of barley and pieces of bread, 
who sewed pillows under people's arm-holes, that they might 
lie soft in their sins, Ezek. 13. You are such as they that 
taught for the fleece and the wool, and made a prey of the 
people, Ezek. 34. But the Lord is gathering his sheep from 
your mouths, and from your barren mountain, and is bringing 
them to Christ, the one Shepherd, whom he hath set over his 
flocks ; as by his Prophet Ezekiel, he then declared he would 
do. You are such as those that divined for money, and preached 
for hire; and if a man did not put into their mouths they pre- 
pared war against him; as the Prophet Micah complained, 
chap. 3. Thus I went through the Prophets too largely to be 
here repeated. Then coming to the New Testament, I showed 



23 

from thence, that they were like the Chief Priests, Scribes, and 
Pharisees, whom Christ cried woe against, Math. 23. And 
that they were such false Apostles as the true Apostles cried 
against, such as taught for filthy lucre; such antichrists and 
deceivers as they cried against, that minded earthly things, and 
served not the Lord Jesus Christ, but their own bellies: for 
they that served Christ gave freely and preached freely, as he 
commanded them. But they that will not preach without hire, 
tithes or outward means, serve their own bellies, and not Christ; 
and through the good words of the Scriptures, and feigned 
words of their own, they made merchandize of the people then, 
as (said I) ye do now. When I had largely quoted the Scrip- 
tures, and showed them wherein they were like the Pharisees, 
loving to be called of men masters, to go in long robes, to stand 
praying in the synagogues, to have the uppermost rooms at 
feasts and the like; and when I had thrown them out in the 
sight of the people amongst the false prophets, deceivers, 
Scribes, and Pharisees, and showed at large how such as they 
were judged and condemned by the true Prophets, Christ and 
the Apostles, I directed them to the light of Jesus, who enlight- 
ens every man that cometh into the world ; that by it they might 
see whether these things were not true as had been spoken." 

Page 421. — "I was under great sufferings at this time, beyond 
what I have words to declare. For I was brought into the 
deep, and saw all the religions of the world, and people that 
lived in them, and the priests that held them up ; who were 
as a company of men-eaters, eating up the people like bread, 
and gnawing the flesh from off their bones. But as for true 
religion aud worship, and ministers of God, alack ! I saw 
there was none amongst those of the world that pretended to it. 
For they that pretended to be the church, were but a company of 
men-eaters, men of cruel visages, of long teeth ; who though they 
had cried against the men-eaters in America, I saw they were in 
the same nature. And as the great professing Jews did ' eat 
up God's people like bread,' the false prophets and priests then 
preached pe.i.e to the people so long as they put into their 



24 

mouths andjfed them ; but if they fed them not they prepared 
war against them ; i they ate their flesh off their bones, and 
chopped them for their cauldron ;' so these that profess 
themelves Christians now (both priests and professors) and are 
not in the same power and spirit that Christ and the holy Pro- 
phets and Apostles were in, are in the same nature that the old 
professing Jews were in, and are man-eaters as well as they. 
These stirred up persecution, and set the wicked informers on 
work ; so that a friend could hardly speak a few words in a 
private family, before they sat down to eat, but some were ready 
to inform against them." 

Rusticus ad Academicos, Page 225. — u Whence it comes 
to pass, for the most part, that as there's like prince like priest, 
so like priest like people in these Northern Islands, where after 
some certain time of standing and studying in the University, 
these hasty hirelings run abroad before the word of command be 
given them from the mouth of the Lord, and settle themselves 
up and down till the country swarms with them, like so many 
locusts, successively supplying the waste places of such as either 
die in parishes, or depart from one to another, where there is 
a bigger boon, ne detur vacuum ^ that there be no place void or 
empty at any hand, which is not more an abhorring to nature 
in general, in rerum naturd, in the fabrick of the Universe, 
than 'tis to these natural minds, in hujusmodi rerum naturd, in 
the fabrick of their University affairs. 

" And sometimes so do they hasten on their own heads, to be 
prophets and pastors for their own ends and livings' sake, upon 
which account, being thereby capable of some parsonage or 
ecclesiastical emolument, much more than for service' sake to 
the Gospel, many younger brothers and poor men's sons are sent 
there to be educated, that before their haughty heads are half 
hatched into any solid understanding of either themselves or the 
Truth of God, or their hearts so much as warmed into any way 
of wisdom from above, they run like a company of Green-gulls 
with shells on their heads, and sow themselves under the earth, 



25 

(for heaven they see not) in such seats and soils as best like 
them, and plant themselves (for plants of the heavenly Father's 
planting they are not,) in parishes, palaces, and other places, 
as chaplains and curates, and then divide, and divine out that 
Divinity they have stored their heads, and common-place books 
withall by stealth of study, out of the common stock of spirit 
stinting stuff, which like a spiking that is never drawn drier 
than 'twas at first, remaining the same still at the well-head, for 
the furnishing of all new comers, behaving themselves so honor- 
ably, or rather onorably in their respective bounds or circuits 
among the people of these nations of England, Scotland, and 
Ireland also, whether they sell by wholesale, even by whole 
tons at once, that more like the Pope in his Peterdom, than 
like Peter, who commanded the contrary, they lord it over their 
flocks, so as to live upon them whether they will or not, and 
often without their leave, if they can be licensed elsewhere set 
up their shop of books and go out and keep market in their 
parish once a week, and sell one or two of their thoughts upon 
some text of Scripture by a glass full at a time, at the rate of 
about twenty shillings a piece, and which is most tyrannical, 
force people too to buy their commodity, be it good or bad, 
truth or error, right or wrong, honest or counterfeit; and 
which is worse yet, without allowing any the liberty to try it in 
the public market-place or old mass-house where they hold it 
forth ; whereas all other tradesmen and shop-keepers, excepting 
these mystical merchants, give all their customers leave to try 
their wares and merchandize, and leave them to their own choice 
whether they will buy it or no : and which is worse yet, when 
they have sold their sermons to them, or read, or said them 
over to them out of their notes, they take them away along with 
them and leave them not to the people, who are to pay for 
them per force, when the time comes, and, which is the prime 
piece of delusiveness, perhaps sell the self-same sermons for as 
much more at another place, at a funeral or some such like 
occasion, whereas if any shoemaker should take his shoes, or 
bookseller the sermons, which he hath sold, and sell them to 

D 



26 

another, I know what these men, who call the Quakers fanati 
cat knaves, as well as others, would quickly be ready to ac- 
count of them. 

"And whereas a man may buy a school Bible for five shillings, 
they sell some one verse of it, a little set out, and flourished, 
and amplified with no other trimming, but their own fallible 
vain thoughts upon it, for twenty shillings, which Bible might 
serve a whole town to read in ; one chapter of which is worth 
twenty of their uncertain sermons ; or if men be minded to 
have sermons, these nations are now so full of them, that for 
groats a piece one may buy twenty printed sermons of men, 
whom they count more eminent than themselves, which may 
serve to hear and read at home no less than twenty weeks 
together, one of which sermons has more truth in it than 
either priests or people upon their principles of non-perfection of 
Holiness, and purging from sin in this life are like to practice 
as long as they live ; and till they practice what they know- 
already, it's but labour lost, pains taken, time spent, and money 
expended in vain to preach and hear in order to their knowing 
more, since whatsoever is known and remains undone, does but 
add to their condemnation. 

Page 561. — "It is true (as thou sayest,) kykvovro tbevco-irp 
o(pi]rat iv 7(0 \aw, There were false Prophets that spake in the 
name of the Lord when he sent them not; and may be now, 
and have been, and are witness not only the many thousands of 
those Locusts, that stand now separated into three swarms, as 
was foreseen and foretold in the vision of the three unclean 
spirits, like Frogs, that have gone out to the deluding of princes 
and people, even the great city, woman, or whore, that hath 
reigned over the earth, and sat on the many waters, peoples, 
multitudes, nations and tongues, with whom both Kings and 
inhabiters of the earth (being drunk and intoxicated with the 
wine of her wisdom,) have committed fornication, and run a 
whoring from the wisdom of God, divided and dividing the 
people, that profess the name of Christ, (without his Nature,) 
respectively into three parts. Rev. xiii. 16, 19. Rev. ii, 



27 

20, 21. 22, 23. Rev. xvii. 1. 2, 15, 18, (viz.) 1. The Pope and 
his carnal crew of Cardinals, Mon-Seigneurs, Priests, Jesuits, 
Monks, Friars, and all other sorts of his spiritual men and women, 
which are enough to weary one to read, much more to reckon 
them all up in writing. 2. Arch-Prelates, Prelates, Deans ; un- 
der which name Y. O. was lately the only man in England, 
till removed, that stoGd so denominated, whose Popish traditional 
title was Dean of Christ Church in Oxford, an officer that 
Christ never instituted in any Church that he constituted ; 
Deans and Chapters, and all that hang on that hierarchy, in the 
fell of whose spiritual courts tythes went down too, as to 
way of recovery of them by any law, from any that are not free 
to pay them, if our wise statesmen, -who sat at the stern, once 
had been willing in their time, to see what they saw, before 
their sun was setting. 3. Presbyters, Parsons, Vicars, Curates, 
and all manner of spiritual persons, and their officials, clerk:, 
sextons, &e. depending still together with some that were once 
Independents as none of Christ's, but national messengers fer 
national stipends : Which said three swarms of locusts, who 
love the dark smoke they came out of more than the h 
which dispels it, have covered over the whole European earth 
(and more too) in all corners of it, and have, what they could, 
withheld the wind of God's Spirit from blowing upon the 
:. that themselves might eat up the good things thereof 
and none of Christ's spiritual ones appear to hinder them, 
Rev. wi .19, 3." 

R. Barclay's Works, Page 437. — " They become hereby so 
glued to the love of money, that there is none like them in 
malice, rage, and cruelty : if they be denied their hire, thev 
rage like drunken men, fret, fume, and as it were go mad. A 
man may sooner satisfy the severest creditor, than them ; the 
general voice of tire poor doth confirm this. For indeed, they 
are far more exact in taking up the tithes of sheep, geese, swine, 
and eggs, Sec. and look more narrowly to it, than to the mem- 
bers of their flock: they will miss the least mite; and the 



28 

poorest widow carmnot escape their avaricious hands. Twenty 
lies they will hear unreproved ; and as many oaths a man may 
swear in their hearing without offending them : and greater 
evils than all this, they can overlook. But if thou owest them 
ought, and refuse to pay it, then nothing but war will they 
thunder against thee, and they will stigmatize thee with the 
horrible title of sacrilege, and send thee to hell without mercy, 
as if thou hadst committed the sin against the Holy Ghost. 
Of all people we can best bear witness to this : for God having 
shewn us this corrupt and Anti-Christian Ministry, and called 
us out from it, and gathered us into his own power and life to 
be a separate people, so that we dare not join with, nor hear 
them ; O ! what malice, envy, and fury hath this raised in their 
hearts against us! that though we get none of their wares, 
neither will buy them, as knowing them to be nought ; yet will 
they force us to give them money ; and because we cannot for 
conscience sake do it, our sufferings have upon that ac- 
count been unutterable. Yea, to give an account of their 
cruelty and several sorts of inhumanity used against us, would 
make no small history. These avaricious hirelings have come 
to that degree of malice and rage, that several poor labouring 
men have been carried hundreds of miles from their own dwell- 
ings and shut up in prison, some two, some three, yea, some 
seven years together, for the value of one pound sterling, and 
less. I know myself a poor widow, that for the tithes of her 
geese, which amounted not to five shillings, was about four 
years kept in prison thirty miles from her house. Yea, they by 
violence for this cause have plundered of men's goods the 
hundred-fold ; and prejudiced much more : yea hundreds have 
hereby spilt their innocent blood, by dying in the filthy noisome 
holes and prisons. And some of the priests have been so en- 
raged, that goods thus ravished could not satisfy them ; but they 
must also satisfy their fury by beating, knocking, and wound- 
ing with their hands innocent men and women, for refusing 
(for conscience sake) to put into their mouths. 

" The only way, then, soundly to reform and remove all these 



29 

abuses, and take away the ground and occasion of them is to 
take away all stinted and forced maintenance and stipend : and 
seeing, those revenues w r ere anciently given by the people, that 
they return again into the public Treasure ; and thereby the 
people may be greatly benefitted by them, for that may supply 
for these public Taxations and Impositions, that are put upon 
them, and many ease themselves of them. And whoever call 
or appoint teachers to themselves, let them accordingly entertain 
them : and for such as are called and moved to the ministry of 
the Spirit of God, those that receive them and taste of the 
good of their ministry, will no doubt pro vide things needful for 
them ; and there will be no need of a law to force a hire for 
them : for he that sends them, will take care of them : and they 
also having Jvod and raiment will therewith be content." 



Now I defy the author of the " Strictures" to pro- 
duce a single passage from * The Truth Vindicated," 
in which the preachers for pay and diviners for money, 
are denounced in stronger terms, than they are in the 
above quotations. Robbers of the poor, the fatherless, 
the widow, and the orphan, oppressors, deceivers, 
greedy dumb dogs, men-eaters, scripture sellers, hire- 
lings, hypocrites. And not only are they thus desig- 
nated by the early Friends, but the prophets Isaiah, 
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and others, as well as our blessed 
Lord and the Apostles, characterized such men by such 
terms. Show us one passage, Joseph John, in " The 
Truth Vindicated," which surpasses in the strength 
and the severity of its reproof, this condensation 
of holy censure, that is now placed before thine eyes. 
Canst thou cast thine eyes over these quotations, 
without having thy feelings and principles greatly 
shocked as a man and as a christian ? Does that same 
n2 



30 

extensive charity which can reach even to an anony- 
mous author, and " wish him well, anonymous as he is," 
induce thee to think the same language which was 
used in the unpolished centuries that are past, to have 
been highly appropriate and just, but in these times of 
taste and sentiment, to be " unseemly and violent?" 
Ah! the peculiar times in which they lived — the 
oppression and greediness of the Priests, doubtless 
called down upon them those severe censures, and 
justly entitled them to those odious appellations. But 
where are the Priests now, who " teach for handfuls of 
barley, and pieces of bread," and who " for the fleece 
and the wool, make a prey of the people ?" Where 
are the " greedy dumb dogs" now who seek for gain 
from their quarter, and never have enough ? Where 
are the Priests now, who if the people put not into their 
mouths, nor feed them, prepare war against them, eat 
their flesh off their bones, and chop them for their 
caldrons ? Where are the Priests now who love to be 
called of men masters, to go in long robes, to have the 
uppermost rooms at feasts, and the like ? Where are 
the Priests now, who take people's tithes by a law, and 
if they will not pay them, "prison them, or make them 
pay treble?" Where are the Priests now who rob the 
poor, the fatherless and the widow," of their " cattle 
and their corn," and " are cried up to be ministers of 
the gospel ?" Where now is the " market bell to gather 
the people that the Priest may set forth his ware to 
sale ?" Where now are the Priests who make vast 
sums of money by selling the Scripture ? Where now 
are the Priests, who can challenge competition in point 
of gain with the world beside ? Where now are " all 



31 

the hireling teachers of the world whatsoever," that 
George Fox denied, when he felt the mighty power of 
God arise over all ? Ah ! where are they now ? Can 
Priest Newton tell us, who has lately published, what 
he calls " A Remonstrance to the Society of Friends/' 
and who in a late number of the Eclectic Review, 
pathetically invites our author of the " Strictures' ' to 
no longer hesitate in bearing "his testimony to his real 
brethren ?" Well ; can the author of the " Strictures" 
inform us, where " all these hireling teachers of the 
world whatsoever," are now to be found? Have the 
" labours of many eminent biblical critics," during the 
last hundred and fifty years," driven them to the 
dreary outskirts of the world, and does there no longer 
" go up a cry to heaven against them ?" Take a map 
of the world, and put thy finger upon the country 
where these oppressors and hirelings do not more or 
less follow their unhallowed vocation. Who are they, 
who have so lately shed human blood in Ireland, rob- 
bed the widow and the fatherless, cast into prison, and 
left their houses desolate ? Who are they who have 
thus ;i prepared war against those who will not put 
into their mouths and feed them ?" Are they oppressors 
and hirelings ? Or are they the ministers of Christ f 
Who are they in England, who " keep market in their 
parish once a week, and sell one or two of their 
thoughts upon some text of scripture by a glass full at 
a time, at the rate of about twenty shillings a piece ?" 
Are they hirelings ? Or are they ministers of Christ ? 
Who are they in England that sell the furniture, " corn 
and cattle," of those that will not " feed their bellies, 
and clothe their backs ? Who are they that thus dis- 



32 

train upon thy goods and chattels, if thou art faithful 
to our christian testimony against paying tithes, Priests' 
demands, and those called church-rates ? And, lastly, 
who are they, who unable to enlist the constables' staff, 
or the soldier's sword on their behalf, nevertheless take 
their wares to the best market that they can, and 
impose upon the ignorance and credulity of their 
customers ? Are they hirelings ? Or are they ministers 
of Christ ? 

Is that man, be he who he may, a minister of the gospel, 
that gains a livelihood in that trade, or profession, (as 
they term it themselves,) the mystery of which 
consists in a periodical publication of written or 
extemporaneous commentaries upon the writings of 
holy men, which were given forth of old, as they were 
moved by the Holy Ghost ? Is such a man I ask, a 
free minister of the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ, 
or is he not a minister of his own will and understand- 
ing, — a hireling, and a deceiver P And if he is a hire- 
ling and a deceiver, is he'to be spoken of as what he is, 
or as what he is not ? These are plain questions, 
Joseph John Gurne}^, and are susceptible of as plain 
an answer, and I think a little plainer, than thou hast 
given to " our author's taunting inquiries respecting the 
parts of scripture which he would select for our test." 

Well, I have cleared this point. I stand upon the 
fact, that I have not used a single term of condemnation 
in "The Truth Vindicated," in relation to " all the 
hireling teachers of the world whatsoever," that is 
expressive of ignominy and condemnation more strong 
than may be found in the quotations I have made from 
the works of our "Early Friends," and if the author of the 



33 

" Strictures," with this plain and undeniable body of 
evidence before his eyes, shall still pertinaciously insist 
that in this particular and first charge, I have advanced 
" sentiments utterly opposed to those which Friends 
have always felt it their duty and privilege to uphold." 
I will immediately refer him to the 13th page of his 
Pamphlet, where he will find written, that " every one 
who has, with any care, examined the subject, must be 
aware that these propositions are as false as they are 
audacious." 

The author of the "Strictures," before taking his 
leave of this first charge, gives us the following apos- 
trophe, " It would be well if all persons, who bear the 
name of Christians, would impartially try both their 
opinions, and their religious experience, by the fruit 
which they are producing. The fruit of the Spirit 
is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, 
faith, meekness, and temperance." Very true Joseph 
John, but it does not make us love hirelings as such, 
nor " cry, peace, peace, where there is no peace." It 
does not prevent us from bearing " our honest testi- 
mony" to " the truth as it is in Jesus," and against 
those who seek to subvert it. It does not impose 
upon us the necessity of calling hirelings and deceivers, 
ministers of the Gospel, nor shock our feelings and 
principles, to designate them in " the form of sound 
words/' after the example of holy men of old. Thy 
preceding " Stricture," connected with this quotation 
from the apostle, enumerating the " fruit of the 
Spirit," looks very much like the " poison mingled up 
with wholesome food," that thou alludest to, which 
" we well know has caused the death of manv an 



34 

unsuspecting person. '' I will introduce to thy notice 
an appropriate quotation, from the writings of one of 
our early Friends. 

Advices, &c. from the Writings or Stephen Crisp. — 
" And all beware of that affected tenderness that cries out, be 
tender to all, and pray for all, and mind the good in all, and 
love all, and judge none, but leave judgment to God. I say 
heed not the plausible words of that spirit, which, being guilty, 
to save its own head from a stroke, would bereave you of your 
judgment which God hath given you ; and is indeed truly his 
judgment, and is to be administered in his wisdom and power, 
for the cleansing and keeping clean his sanctuary ; for such as 
have no judgment in their goings, are they that know not the 
true way of peace, but make them crooked paths. He that 
goeth in them shall not know peace. 

" But some may say, was not Christ meek and lowly ? and 
ought not all to be like unto him ? It is true, my friends ; but 
there is a difference between the seed's suffering and its reign- 
mg, and there are times for them both ; and when it doth please 
God to permit the hour and power of darkness in the open 
persecutors, to exalt itself against his seed and people, by 
persecutions or such like ; they are led by his Spirit to appear 
in meekness and quietness, as sheep before the shearer. But 
what is this to suffering bad and perverse spirits, that appear 
under the pretence of truth, and yet are out of the truth and 
enemies to its prosperity ', striving to exalt and set up another 
thins; instead of the truth ? Such as these the Lord doth not 
require you to use only patience and meekness towards, but if 
that will not reclaim them, they must know the judgment of 
the truth, and you in it must stand over them : for in this case, 
the day of the exaltation of Christ is come, and God is crown- 
ing truth with dominion over every false spirit and corrupt 
practice. 

u And therefore, dear friends, eye the Lord in his goings forth, 
and as you feel his life in you to witness against any evil or 



35 

corrupt tiling or practice, use plainness and Keep Sincerity, and 
turn not judgment backward ; for that which is unwilling to be 
judged, and cries out judge none, leave all to God, &c. the 
same will take upon it both to judge and rule, but not in the 
wisdom of God. And those that cry out so much for tender- 
ness and against truth's judgment, the same are in most danger 
to be drawn out from the paternal suffering in the Spirit of 
Christ Jesus, when they ought to appear in the most meek- 
ness ; and appear rough and wrathful in the striving and 
fighting nature and are most apt to be tempted into a spirit of 
revenge, as hath been seen by sad experience, for they that lose 
the experience of that by which all should keep dominion over 
deceit, they lose that strength by which they should be enabled 
to suffer all things for the sake of Christ Jesus." 

I will give one more quotation from a paper written 
by another of our early Friends, Francis HowgiiL in 
reply to one of the charges of a Samuel Smith, and as 
the charge is in substance very similar to what the 
anchor of the " Strictures," has made against that 
writer of " The Truth Vindicated," I think its intro- 
duction here may be of peculiar service, and if any 
of the clerical Friends of the author of the M Stric- 
tures," have by their bland and persuasive influence, 
induced him to stretch out a sort of authoritative arm, 
between their profession, and the testimony of the 
truth, he cannot do better than recommend the whole 
of the paper from which the following extract is made, 
to their careful and serious perusal. 

" In the fourth and fifth particular thou sayest ice are 

' charged to be malicious against the most eminent ministers 

of the land.' They whom thou callest eminent ministers, 

have charged us with many false things, and have written 

.})• false things against us, for -which thou and they, 



36 

in the dreadful day of the Lord shall give an account : 
envy, bitterness, and malice is put away from us, and we 
envy no man, but speak the truth in soberness, and yet 
to say, a liar, is a liar, or a deceiver, a deceiver, or an 
hypocrite, an hypocrite, when they are so, is neither 
railing nor malice. Christ, in whom no guile was 
found, said, they were a generation of vipers, and were 
of their Father the Devil, who were in envy, and went 
about to kill him. And the Apostle was not envious 
when he said, ' O full of all subtilty, thou child of the 
Devil,' to one who was doing the work of the Devil ; 
and many such workers ice find, and many venomous 
spirits who shoot out poisoned arrows, even bitter words, 
and these we must reprove sharply." 

I now come to the next " Stricture," which runs 
thus. " The doctrine that a measure of the light of 
the Spirit of Christ is bestowed upon mankind univer- 
sally (a doctrine which I reverently accept) is here 
described as the very foundation of our hopes. Such a 
statement is liable to great objection. It is opposed to 
that fundamental principle of the gospel — the free 
forgiveness of sin through faith in the blood of Jesus ; 
and it tends to excite a prejudice against the precious 
influences of the Holy Spirit, by presenting them to 
us in a perverted and unscriptural form. Elias Hicks, 
of North America, was accustomed to express himself 
in precisely the same way." And then follow, two 
quotations from Elias Hicks. 

Now, what if Elias Hicks " was accustomed to express 
himself in precisely the same way ! Does the author 
of the " Strictures" suppose that Elias Hicks never 
spoke truth in his life ? I tell him that his unworthy 



37 

attempt to identify the principles contained in " The 
Truth Vindicated," with Hicksism and Deism, shall not 
succeed. I tell thee, Joseph Gurney, thou shalt neither 
be able to conceal the genuine doctrines of Quakerism; 
(so called) by so artful a stratagem, nor yet fasten the 
stigma upon the work which thou art not able to 
controvert by truth, scripture, or reason, and therefore 
attemptest to bring it into disrepute, like the spies into 
the land of Canaan, by means of an evil and untrue 
report. But as Paul shook the viper from off his hand, 
when his lot was cast among barbarians, so will I, by 
Divine permission, shake off the foul slander, that the 
author of the " Strictures" has endeavoured to fasten 
upon " an anonymous pamphlet entitled The Truth 
Vindicated/' And what, I repeat, if " Elias Hicks, of 
North America, was accustomed to express himself in 
precisely the same way V Joseph Gurney himself 
is in the right sometimes, and he is quoted in " The 
Truth Vindicated" upon that account ; but does the 
fact of my coincidence with him upon some points, 
necessarily identify my work with his errors ? Not in 
the least. I most solemnly declare that I never read a 
publication of Elias Hicks's, so that at all events I have 
learned nought of him. The only acquaintance that I have 
had with his opinions, has been through the quotations 
that have been made from his books in the present 
controversy. And there would be as much charity, 
and as much justice, in my identifying all the princi- 
ples of the author of the " Strictures" with those of 
Muggleton, Irving, or the Ranters, because they, as 
well as himself, have occasionally repeated the Lord's 
prayer. 

E 



38 

But in the first place, the author of the " Strictures" 
has altered the terms as they appear in the quotation. 
He says, " The doctrine that a measure of the light of the 
Spirit of Christ is bestowed on mankind universally, a 
doctrine which I reverently accept, is here described as 
the very foundation of our hopes," Now, there is not 
such an arrangement of words in the quotation that he 
has made, as " a measure of the light of the Spirit of 
Christ." The words measure, Spirit, Christ, do not 
even appear in the quotation at all ; how can they then 
form constituent parts in any sentence of it ? They 
do not ; the sentence is of his own formation, and the 
inferences he draws from it, be they right or wrong, 
belong not to me. 

Upon reference to the quotation from the Truth Vindi- 
cated, it will be clearly seen that " the foundation of our 
hopes" is thus stated, viz., That " the word of God, ac- 
cording to the Scriptures, is that light which lighteth every 
man that cometh into the world " and that this was a 
fundamental principle and doctrine of our early Friends, 
I will amply prove. But to take the author of the 
" Strictures'' even upon his own terms of the question, 
I would ask him, what is it that gives " faith in the 
blood of Jesus ?" Is not Christ the Light, said to be 
the f ' Author, as well as Finisher of our faith ?" If then 
faith has an Author, which it most assuredly has, if its 
Author be Christ, the Light himself, how can it be anti- 
scriptural, or " opposed to that fundamental principle 
of the gospel," to say that he who is the foundation of 
our faith is also the foundation of our hopes ? since, if 
we have not a measure of his light, we cannot have 
even a measure of faith, or any hope but a false one. 



39 

A man may have the light without the faith or hope, 
but he cannot have the faith or hope without the light. 
Unless this fundamental principle, then, be received, 
N that the word of God, according to the Scriptures, is 
that light which lighteth every man that cometh into 
the world," how can I be u persuaded in my own mind,' : 
that the " free mercy of God in Him (Christ,) is a sure 
ground for my hopes ?" It is only in that light, that I can 
have the knowledge of " God's mercy in Christ;" it is 
only in that light, that my hopes can be fixed on his 
mercy. The light is essential both to the knowledge 
and the hope, and to the consummation of that hope. 
'*■ If we say that we have fellowship with him, and 
walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. But 
if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have 
fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ 
His Son cleanseth us from all sin/' 1 John i. 6, 7. 

I should not be so particular in subjecting Joseph 
Gurney's expressions upon this head, to so close a 
scrutiny, did he not pass by this important and funda- 
mental doctrine of the gospel, (the universality of the 
light of Christ,) with only a parenthetical acquiescence 
to its truth. That the free mercy of God in Jesus 
Christ, is that special grace of the Almighty upon 
which a Christian's hopes may and do rest, is in a 
sense true; but not in the sense which the author of 
the " Strictures" contends for, viz., to the exclusion of 
the light, for without the light we could have no true 
hope in that mercy. In short, the author of the 
" Strictures," to the contradiction of himself, asserts. 
in other words, the same thing. " I trust," says he. 
"that every sound Quaker is fully prepared to confess 



40 

that our Lord Jesus Christ himself, in all His gracious 
offices, is the only foundation on which the church is 
built/ ' Therefore not his mercy alone. Now, the 
light includes them all : " God is light, and in him is no 
darkness at all." " Christ is equal with God." Christ 
therefore is light.' 1 " Other foundation can no man 
lay, than that is laid, even Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus 
is light. Light therefore is the only foundation. " Christ 
in you," says the Apostle, " the hope of glory." And 
all that is not built hereon, is short of the true rest and 
foundation. 

I say with the author of the " Strictures," that 
" Our Lord Jesus Christ himself, in all his gracious 
offices, is the only foundation on which the church is 
built," and this is what is stated to be the foundation, 
in the passage which this individual has unfairly 
wrested, even so far, as to discard the very terms in 
which it is conveyed, and substitute some of his own, 
to form a ground for what he calls " Strictures," to be 
based upon ; that is, he first of all quotes my words 
correctly ; he quotes what I have declared to be " the 
foundation of our hopes," and then says that something 
else, "the Doctrine," and not "the Word of God," is 
described as the very foundation of our hopes. A man 
must certainly be inflated with no ordinary share of 
assurance, thus wantonly to set the very eyes in our 
heads at defiance, or surely he would have suffered my 
own words either to have justified or condemned me. 
I must however remind the author of the V Strictures " 
that to be built upon Christ, includes " all his graci- 
ous offices," and if Joseph John Gurney believes that 
He, "in all his gracious offices, is the only foundation 



41 

on which the church is built, how is it that with the 
same stroke of his pen he separates one of these 
" offices" from the rest, and says that the free mercy of 
God in Him, is the sole ground of the Christian's hopes ? 
Does not the author of the " Strictures' ' know, (he 
surely must,) that the Church is constituted of Chris- 
tians, and that therefore, what is the Church's founda- 
tion collectively, is also the Christian's individually ; 
and that if the Church collectively, has for its " only 
foundation" the Lord Jesus Christ in all his gracious 
offices, then each member individually also ; and rests not 
upon the " free mercy of God in Him" alone? But as 
if conscious of his weakness here, and purposely to dis- 
guise this gross contradiction from others, the autho r 
of the " Strictures" changes his terms when speaking 
of "the Church" and "the Christian" respectively, 
employing the words " the only foundation" in refer- 
ence to the Church, and " the sole ground," in reference 
to the Christian. 

The Christian has an enemy to contend with, that 
nothing but the power of Omnipotence can overcome ; 
ay, and this enemy has desired to have some " that 
he might sift them like wheat." u The Christian's 
hopes" rest therefore in the power, as well as in the 
mercy of Him, who can " destroy him that has the 
power of death, that is, the devil." Heb. ii. 14. The 
Christian believes in a glorious resurrection, and that 
if faithful unto death, he shall obtain his " part in it," 
and be admitted to a participation of the joys of eternal 
life. "The Christian's hopes" rest therefore upon the 
faithfulness as well as the mercy of Him, who "is not 

e 2 



42 

slack concerning his promise." 2 Peter iii. 9. There- 
fore " the sole ground of the Christian's hopes," is 
neither the faithfulness, omnipotence, nor mercy of 
God, abstractedly and separately considered, for writes 
the Apostle, " Christ in you the hope of glory/' 

Now let us see what our early Friends say upon the 
light, the foundation of our hopes* and perhaps we shall 
find that they, as well as " Elias Hicks of North Ame- 
rica, were accustomed to express themselves in pre- 
cisely the same way," and are from this cause as justly 
chargeable with Hicksism as the author of " The Truth 
Vindicated." 

Concerning Hope. Isaac Penington. — " The ground of 
the hope is God's love, God's truth, God's faithfulness, God's 
grace, his seed, his Christ felt within ; being of him, united to 
him, in him, he in me ; here is the ground of my assurance of 
the everlasting glory and inheritance, which is sure to the seed, 
and to all that are of and in the seed. So knowing Christ 
within me, feeling Christ within me, living in him and he in me, 
I have an anchor sure and steadfast within the veil, which no 
storms, no tempests, no trials, no temptations, present or to 
come, have power over me. And then there is the hope, or 
hoping itself ; that is, the staying of the mind upon the Lord, 
the leaning upon the Lord, the retiring beyond all thoughts, or 
reasonings, or \o6k\x\gs out , to the inward life; tofeel somewhat 
spring from it for the soul to hope or trust in beyond all out- 
ward appearance." 

The Rise and Progress of the People called Quakers, 
by William Penn, Fourth Edition, Vol. 3, Page 468.— "This 
we know, but we cannot make another to know it, unless he 
will take the same way to know it that we took. The world 
talks of God, but what do they do ? They pray for power, but 



43 

reject the principle in which it is. If you would know God, 
and worship and serve God as you should do, you must come 
to the means he has ordained and given for that purpose. Some 
seek it in books, some in learned men ; but what they look for 
is in themselves, though not of themselves, but they overlook it. 

" Wherefore, O friends, turn in, turn in, I beseech you : where 
is the poison, there is the antidote. There you want Christ, 
and there you must find him ; blessed be God, there you may 
find him." 

Preface to Primitive Christianity Revived, &c. by 
William Penn, Page 471. — "By this short ensuing treatise, 
thou wilt perceive the subject of it, viz. i the Light of Christ in 
man, as the manifestation of God's love for men's happiness.' 
Now, forasmuch as this is the peculiar testimony and charac- 
teristic of the people called Quakers; their great fundamental 
in religion ; that by which they have been distinguished from 
other professors of Christianity in their time, and to which they 
refer all people about faith, worship, and practice, both in 
their ministry and writings ; that as the fingers shoot out of 
the hand, and the branches from the body of the tree, so true 
religion, in all the parts and articles of it, springs from this 
Divine principle in man" 

Primitive Christianity Revived, by William Penn, 
Page 473. — " That which the people called Quakers lay down 
as a main fundamental in religion, is this, ' that God, through 
Christ, hath placed a principle in every man to inform him of 
his duty, and to enable him to do it ; that those that live up to 
this principle, are the people of God ; and those that live in 
disobedience to it are not God's people, whatever name they 
may bear, or profession they may make of religion. This is 
their ancient, first and standing testimony : with this they 
began, and this they bore, and do bear, to the world. 

" There are divers ways of speaking they have been led to use, 
by which they declare and express w-hat this principle is, about 
which I think fit to precaution the reader; viz. they call it " the 



44 

light of Christ within man/ 7 or, light within, (John i. 9.) 
which is their ancient, and most general and familiar phrase, 
also the manifestation (Rom. i. 19.) or appearance (Tit. iii. 4. 
Acts xvii. 28. 2 Pet. iv. 13.) of Christ; the witness of God, 
(Rom. viii. 6. 1 John v. 6, 12) the seed of God ; the seed of 
the kingdom, (1 Pet. i. 23. 1 John iii. 9.) wisdom, (Matt. xiii. 
19,23.)theword(Prov.i. 20— 23. and viii. 1— 4.Deut.xxx. 12. 
Rom. x. 6 — 8. Psalm cxix. 10.) in the heart ; the grace (Tit. ii. 
11, 12.) that appears to all men; the spirit (1 Cor. xii. 7.) 
given to every man to profit with ; the truth (Psalm li. 6. Isa. 
xxvi. 2. John xiv. 6.) in the inward parts; the spiritual leaven, 
(Matt. xiii. 33.) that leavens the whole lump of man: which 
are many of them figurative expressions, but all of them such 
as the Holy Ghost hath used, and which will be used in this 
treatise, as they are most frequently in the writings and ministry 
of this people. But that this variety of manner and expres- 
sion may not occasion any misapprehension or confusion in 
the understanding of the reader, I would have him know, that 
they always mean by these terms, or denominations, not another, 
but the same principle, before mentioned ; which as I said, 
though it be in man, is not of man, but of God, and therefore 
divine : and one in itself, though diversely expressed by the 
holy men, according to the various manifestations and operations 
thereof. It is to this principle of light, life and grace, that this 
people refer all." 

Page 475. — " To sum up what they say upon the nature and 
virtue of it, the light, as contents of that which follows, 
they declare that this principle is, First, divine, Secondly, 
universal, Thirdly, efficacious, in what it gives man, 

"First, the knowledge of God, and of himself; and therein, 
a sight of his duty, and disobedience to it. 

" Secondly, it begets a true sense and sorrow for sin in those 
that seriously regard the convictions of it. Thirdly, it enables 
them to forsake sin, and sanctifies from it. 

"Fourthly, it applies God's mercies in Christ, for the forgive- 






45 

ness of sins that are past, unto justification, upon such sincere 
repentance and obedience. 

" Fifthly, it gives to the faithful, perseverance unto a perfect 
man, and the assurance of blessedness, world without end. 

" To the truth of all which, they call in a threefold evidence : 
First, the Scriptures, which give an ample witness, especially 
those of the New and better Testament. Secondly, the reason- 
ableness of it in itself. And lastly, a general experience, in 
great measure ; but particularly their oxen, made credible by 
the good fruits they have brought forth, and the [answer God 
has given to their ministry ; which to impartial observers, have 
commended the principle, and gives me occasion to abstract 
their history in divers particulars for a conclusion to this little 
treatise." 

A Testimony to "The True Light," by that Faithful, 
Patiext, and Long-Sufferixg Servant of Christ, Wil- 
liam Bexxet, Page 6. — "The light is the author of the true 
and living faith which giveth victory over the world, and is a 
shield unto the soul to fend off the fiery darts of the devil, and 
worketh by love, to the purifying of the heart. The light is 
the author of the true hope, which is an anchor to the soul, sure 
and steadfast, and is held in a pure conscience, void of offence 
towards God and man." 

Page 7. — " The light is like unto the touchstone that tries 
silver from tin, it trieth and discovereth the good from the bad; 
it trieth motions, thoughts, words, works and spirits. The light 
is a stone which God hath laid in Sion, elect and precious ; 
and those that believe in it shall not be ashamed; and unto 
those that believe he is very precious; but unto them that 
believe not, he is as a stone of stumbling, and a rock of o fence, 
at whom the seeming-wise master-builders have and do stum- 
ble ; and He whom the wise professors of this age, and great 
rabbies, and learned orators, set at nought, the same is become 
the head and chief corner-stone in God's house; by the virtue 
of which stone, they that believe in Him are quickened, and 
made living stones meet to be joined unto him — the Light." 



46 

Page 8. — " The light is the beginning and the end, the foun- 
dation and top stone, the root and offspring of David, and the 
bright and morning star, whose blessed day Abraham saw, and 
was glad : He dwelt among the seven golden candlesticks ; and 
was with the church in the wilderness, in the days of old." 

Spiritual Verities Revealed, by Samuel Fisher, 
Page 845. — " Whereas therefore ye query, what God really is in 
himself ? As God saith of himself, I am that I am ; so say I, 
Deus est id quod est ; God is what he is : and if ye, who by 
your asking of us, profess yourselves to be yet ignorant of him, 
and so to worship (if yet ye worship him at all) an unknown 
God, as the wise Athenians did, would know him in any 
measure, as he is really in himself ; my counsel to you is, to 
stand still in his own counsel, namely, his light in your con- 
sciences, that in that you may be led forth into his life and 
likeness, even unto the image of his Son, the light of the 
world, the righteous, pure, meek, innocent, gentle, loving, 
peaceable, inoffensive, merciful, compassionate, tender, patient 
Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of it, who is the express 
image of the Father ; in that light that manifests him, and all 
things (for whatever is manifest, is manifested by the light,) 
wait for the appearing in his own spirit and power to restore 
his own image in your hearts ; that as he appeareth, ye may 
appear with him in his glory, which is fulness of grace and 
truth, being transformed into his image from glory to glory, by 
the operation of his Holy Spirit; that as he appeareth, ye may 
be like him, and so see him as he is ; then shall ye know the 
Lord, if ye thus follow on to know him, whose goings forth 
are prepared as the morning to meet those that meet him in his 
light, by which he shineth into our hearts, to give the light of 
the knowledge of his own glory, in the face of Jesus 
Christ. 

" Finally, in answer to the latter part of this your first query, 
I say that light which God now is (whom no such eye as you 
look after him with, who ask counsel of man only concerning 



him, and not of himself alone; either hath seen, or can see;) 
that same light he ever was, and in that light in which he now 
is and dwells, (which is unapproachable by every evil doer, 
who hates the light, which is come unto him to save him, 
neither comes unto it, lest by it his deeds should be reproved, 
and which he who doth truth comes to, that his deeds may be 
made manifest to be wrought in God) in that God was, and did 
dwell from everlasting : and as the outward sun is not seen 
through any other natural light save that which shines from 
itself m the outward world : so God neither is, nor can be seen 
by means of any other spiritual light, save that which shines 
from himself into the inner world of men's hearts. And in that 
light in which God doth now manifest himself, in the same did 
he manifest himself before time was, and before there was any 
creature extant to take cognizance of him by such a manifesta- 
tion, even before the foundation of the heaven and earth was 



. George Whitehead, Divinity of Christ, an Answer 
to Thomas Danson, &c. Page 69. — "And thislight of Christ 
within (however they miscall it) is that which gives knowledge 
of God's love in Christ, and of the virtue and efficacy of his 
sufferings and so of his blood, and to eat of his flesh which is 
given for the life of the world, wherein we partake of him, as 
the one offering, at the altar of God in his sanctuary, which the 
carnal professors, both among Jews and pretended Christians, 
were and are ignorant of and in this light are we come to 
know and receive Christ and reconciliation through his death, 
and also the glory of God through him, in whom we have 
received the atonement, peace and union, with the Father in the 
Son, which all you that either slight, oppose or deny this light 
within, and say it's but natural, are ignorant of." 

Divine Inspiration, &c. George Whitehead, Page 6. — 
" That God, Christ, the Holy Spirit, do, by immediate illumina- 
tion of our minds, and without external teaching by Scriptures 
or by men, show us, or reveal to us, what we ought to do ; and 



48 

that the children of God are taught of God, and need not any 
other teacher ; this he excepts against, as quite different from 
God's method and way, wherein he hath opposed plain scripture 
testimony. They shall all be taught of God ; they shall not 
teach every man his neighbour, &c. But ye have an unction 
from the Holy One, and ye know all things. The anointing 
which ye have received of him abideth in you ; and ye need 
not that any man teach you ; but as the same anointing teach- 
eth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie ; and even as 
it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him. 

" We do therefore assert the sufficiency of this divine illumi- 
nation or heavenly unction, as being of itself able to show and 
reveal to us what we ought to believe and do in all tilings ; for 
that it was sufficient both to make true prophets and preachers, 
and to enable the holy men of God to give forth what they 
spake, as they were moved by the Holy Ghost ; and without 
the inspiration of the Almighty, men cannot truly understand 
the Scriptures ; yet we do not confine the Holy One only to 
inward teaching, or an immediate way ; though the sufficiency 
thereof to them that are turned to it, we do assert." 

Naked Truth, &c. by Isaac Penington, Preface, Page 
10. — "Therefore that man that would not be deceived, and lose 
his soul for ever, let him take heed how he begins, how he stands, 
and how he proceeds in his religion. The Jews stood in the 
revelation of God's Spirit and power outwardly ; and the state 
of the Christians, the new-covenant state, stands in the revela- 
tion of God's Spirit and power inwardly : for none can beget a 
new-birth to God inwardly, but his own Spirit and power 
working inwardly in the heart. 

" Now that this may be wrought out in thee, wait for the 
appearing and working of that power, which by its appearing 
and working doth effect it daily more and more in those that 
unite to it, and give up to its operations. Oh ! wait to feel 
the power begetting somewhat of its own nature in thee, 
leavening thee into its nature by the pure heavenly leaven 



49 

wherewith God waits to leaven thy heart ! Thus feel thy 
beginning from the true rooty from the holy principle, from the 
seed of the kingdom ; and then wait to feel that grow up in 
thee, and to grow up therefrom, that as the beginning is pure, 
so the growth may be pure also." 

Concerning the Illuminating Spirit and Sanctifying 
Spirit. — " The Spirit which illuminateth, and the Spirit which 
sanctijieth, is one and the same Spirit, and the illumination of 
the Spirit is in order unto sanctification. The same light which 
discovereth the darkyiess, also chaseth away the darkness, as it 
is received and subjected to, and purifieth the mind : for the 
light hath not only a property of enlightening, but also of 
cleansing and sanctifying. And the reason why men are not 
changed, justified, and sanctified, in and by the light, is because 
they love it not, and bring not their hearts and deeds to it / 
and so it is their reprover and condemner, and not their justi- 
fier and sanctifier. But the same Spirit, Light, and Life which 
enlighteneth, also sanctifieth, and there is not another. " 

Page 13. — " Oh ! the sweetness of light within, truth within ; 
Oh ! the precious leadings and drawings thereof, which when 
once felt, upon a fresh and tender remembrance thereof, cannot 
but be longed after again !" 

Concerning the Sun, or Fountain of Spiritual Light, 
Isaac Penington, Page 14. — " Who esteems and honours the 
Scriptures aright ? He that believes their testimony, comes to 
Christ, and makes his Spirit, light and life all ; or he that sets 
the Scriptures in the stead of that Word of life which they 
come from, testify of, and point men to, as the fountain and 
foundation of life and salvation to all mankind V 

Concerning the Inward Light of God's Spirit, Isaac 
Penington, Page 16.—" Q. What is that which the mind is 
to be turned to, to enlighten it, to work the darkness and cor- 
ruption out of it ? 

" A. It is no less than the light of God's Spirit; nothing else 



50 

can do it. The day-spring must arise from on high in the 
heart, or there will be night for ever there. All notions or 
apprehensions concerning the light will not do it; it. is the 
shining of the light alone inwardly which is able to expel the 
darkness there. And if the darkness was within, which they 
were to be turned from, surely the light must shine within, to 
discover the darkness, and to that light must they be turned. 
And in this light the Holy Spirit is received, and dwells there; 
but out of the light, and the limits thereof, in every heart, 
dwells the unclean and dark spirit, and hath power and rule 
thereof; for nothing but the light and strength of God's Spirit 
is able to break his kingdom and dominion inwardly in the 
hearth 

A Warning from the Spirit of Truth, &c. William 
Bayley, Page 283. — "Therefore take my advice in God's 
counsel, and come now to the fear of the Lord and wait in 
his light which makes all things manifest ; for this is the 
beginning of wisdom's faith, which leads unto the perfect (day), 
in which the most holy, unchangeable, everlasting God is 
worshipped ; and out of this there is no true knowledge of him 
or his worship, or acceptance with him, or any assurance, stabi- 
lity or satisfaction, which will endure for ever ; and this is the 
word of the Lord unto you all." 

Page 356. — "Therefore take heed, that thou bow not, or give 
thine heart, mind and affections unto any thing, visible or 
invisible, but to the Lord thy God alone, whose name is but 
one, and changeth not, even the light, which makes manifest all 
things, and divides the darkness from it, and hath no fellowship 
with the unfruitful works and workers therein." 

Immediate Revelation, R. Barclay, Page 627. — " We 
say, that the same seed and life is in us, which was in Him ; and 
is in him in the fulness, as water is in the spring ; and in us as 
the stream : and this seed and spiritual nature, which is both in 
him and us, doth belong to him, as he is the second Adam, or 



51 

Man Christ. Therefore this seed being in us, the Man Christ 
is in us ; not according to his whole manhood, but according 
unto that, which is proper unto it : and yet without all division. 
As the natural life is in all the members, but more principally 
in the head and heart without any division ; so this spiritual life 
and nature is both in Christ our head, and in us, by which he 
dwelleth in us, as the spirit of man doth in the body ; and we 
eat and partake of his flesh." 

Some of the Mysteries of God's Kingdom declared, 
Francis Howgil, Page 125. — "So that none but they that are 
born of the light, and are begotten by Him who is light, can 
have the Spirit of Christ, who is light, to bear witness unto them, 
neither the assurance of the Father's love ; for only they that are 
born of the Spirit, and walk after the Spirit, are justified by the 
Spirit of the Lord." 

The Universal and Saving Light of Christ, R. Bar- 
clay, Page 363. — "Seeing then, it is by this inward gift, grace 
and light, that both those that have the gospel preached unto 
them, come to have Jesus brought forth in them, and to have 
the saving and sanctified use of all outward helps and advan- 
tages; and also, by this same light, that all may come to be 
saved ; and that God calls, invites and strives with all in a day, 
and saveth many, to whom he hath not seen meet to convey this 
outward knowledge : Therefore we having the experience of the 
hmcard and powerful work of this light in our hearts, even Jesus 
revealed in us, cannot cease to proclaim the day of the Lord } 
that it is arisen in it, crying out with the woman of Samaria? 
Come and see One, that hath told me all that ever I have done : 
Is not this the Christ ? that others may come, and feel the same 
in themselves, and may know, that that little small thing, that 
reproves them in their hearts, however they have despised it, and 
neglected it, is nothing less, than the gospel preached in them* 
Christ the wisdom and power of God, being in and by that seed 
seeking to save their souls.' 7 



52 

Page 346. — " It (the light) is sufficient and saving. That whiei; 
is given, that all men through it may believe, must needs be saving 
and sufficient : That by walking in which, fellowship with the 
saints, and the blood of Christ, which cleanseth from all sin? 
is possessed, must be sufficient. But such is the light, 1 John 
i. 7. Therefore, &c. 

"Moreover; that which we are commanded to believe in, 
that we may become the children of the light, must be a super- 
natural, sufficient and saving principle; 

" But we are commanded to believe in this light : Therefore, 
&c. The proposition cannot be denied. The assumption is 
Chrisfs own words, John xii. 36. While ye have the light, 
believe in the light, that ye maybe the children of the light." 

Page 361. — "So we see, how it is the inward work, and not 
the outward history and scripture, that gives the true knowledge; 
and by this inward light many of the heathen philosophers 
were sensible of the loss received by Adam, though they knew 
not the outward history. Hence Plato asserted, that mans soul 
was fallen into a dark cave, where it only conversed with 
shadows. Pythagoras saith, man wandereth in this world as a 
stranger, banished from the presence of God. Which expres- 
sions, and many more that might be gathered out of their 
writings, shew they were not without a sense of this loss. Also, 
they had a knowledge and discovery of Jesus Christ inwardly, 
as a remedy in them to deliver them from that evil seed, and the 
evil inclinations of their own hearts, though not under that 
particular denomination" 

George Fox's Journal, Page 117. — "So in that wait to 
receive power, and the Lord God Almighty preserve you in it ; 
whereby you may come to feel the light, that comprehends time 
and the world. Here the power of the Lord is received, which 
subdues all the contrary, and puts off the garments that will 
stain and pollute. 

"With this light you come to reach the light in every man, 
which Christ enlightens every man that cometh into the world 



53 

withal ; and here the things of Christ come to be known, and 
the voice of Christ heard. Therefore keep in the light, the 
covenant of peace ; and walk in the covenant of life. 

" ' If you can change my covenant/ saith the Lord, < which 
keeps the day in its season, and the night in its season, (mark, 
my covenant, the light) if you can change this, then may you 
change the covenant of God with his seed/ So all Friends 
that are turned to the light which cometh from him by whom 
the world was made, who was before it was made, Christ 
Jesus, the Saviour of our souls, abide in the light, and you will 
see your salvation to be walls and bulwarks against that which 
the light discovers to be contrary to it. 

" Waiting in the light you will receive the power of God, 
which is the gospel of peace, that you may be shod with it. 

" Know that in one another which raiseth up the seed of 
God, sets it over the world and the earth, and crucifies the 
affections and lusts : then the truth comes to reign, which is 
the guide" 

Page 135. — " Christ is come a light into the world, and 
doth enlighten every one that cometh into the world, that all 
through him might believe. He that feeleth the light, that 
Christ hath enlightened him withal, he feeleth Christ in his 
mind, and the cross of Christ, which is the power of God ; he 
shall not need to have a cross of wood or stone to put him in 
mind of Christ or of his cross, which is the power of God 
manifest in the inward parts. 17 

Page 21. — "When the Lord God and his Son Jesus Christ 
sent me forth into the world to preach his everlasting gospel and 
kingdom, I was glad that I was commanded to turn people to 
that inward Light, Spirit, and Grace, by which all might know 
their salvation and their way to God ; even that Divine Spirit 
which would lead them into all truth, and which I infallibly 
knew would never deceive any. 

" But with and by this divine power and Spirit of God, and the 
light of Jesus, I was to bring people off from all their own ways, 
f 2 



54 

to Christ the new and living way ; from their churches, which 
men had made and gathered, to the church in God," &c. 

TO ALL THAT WOULD KNOW THE Way TO THE KINGDOM, 

by George Fox, Page 16. — " For the Jirst step to peace is to 
standstill in the light, (which discovers things contrary to it) for 
power and strength to stand against that nature which the light 
discovers. Here grace grows, here is God alone glorified and 
exalted, and the unknown truth, unknown to the world, made 
manifest; which draws up to God that which lies in prison, 
and refresheth it in time, out of time, through time." 

Page 188. — "Remember you are warned in your life time, 
for this light is your way to salvation, if you walk in it, and this 
light is your condemner, if you reject and hate it. You can 
never come to Christy the Second Priest, until you come to the 
light which the Second Priest hath enlightened you withal." 

Page 208. — " After a little time Edward Pyot and I went to 
Whitehall; and when we came before him, O. Cromwell, Dr. 
Owen, vice Chancellor of Oxford, was with him. We were 
moved to speak to Oliver Cromwell concerning the sufferings of 
Friends, and laid them before him ; and directed him to the light 
of Christ, who had enlightened every man that cometh into the 
world. He said it was a natural light ; but we shewed him the 
contrary ; and manifested that it was a divine and spiritual, 
proceeding from Christ the spiritual and heavenly man ; and 
that which was called the life in Christ the word, was called the 
light in us. The power of the Lord God arose in me, and I was 
moved in it to bid him lay down his crown at the feet of Jesus. 
Several times I spoke to him to the same effect. I was stand- 
ing by the table, and he came and sat upon the table's side by 
me, saying, he would be as high as I was : and so continued 
speaking against the light of Christ Jesus; and went his way in 
a light manner. But the Lord's power came over him, so that 
when he came to his wife and other company, he said, I never 
parted so from them before i for he was judged in himself." 



5.5 

Page 219. — " And Friends, though ye may have been convinced 
and have tasted of the power, and felt the light, yet afterwards 
ye may feel a winter storm, tempest and hail, frost and cold, and 
temptation in the wilderness. Be patient and still in the power 
and in the light that doth convince you, to keep your minds to 
God ; in that be quiet, that ye may come to the summer, that 
your flight be not in the winter." 

u So in the light standing still, ye will see your salvation, ye 
will see the Lord's strength, ye will feel the small rain, ye will 
feel the fresh springs, your minds being kept low in the power 
and light, ye will feel God revealing his secrets, inspiring your 
minds, and his gifts coming in unto you ; through which your 
hearts will be filled with God's love, and praises to him that lives 
for evermore : for in his light and power his blessing is received, 
so in that, the eternal power of the Lord Jesus Christ preserve 
and keep you ! Live every one in the power of God, that ye 
may all come to be heirs of that, and know that to be your pos- 
session, even the kingdom that hath no end, and the endless life 
which the seed is heir of. Feel that set over all which hath the 
promise and blessing of Godyb/* ever." 

Page 220. — " It is not circumstances we contend about, but 
the way of Christ and his light, which are but one; though the 
world hath imagined many ways, and all out of the light, which 
by the light are condemned. He who preached this light, said, 
t He that knoweth God, heareth us ; he that is not of God. 
heareth us not; hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the 
-spirit of error.' It is the same now with them that know the 
truth ; though the whole world lies in wickedness." 

" All dispensations and differences that are not one in the light 
we deny ; and by the light, that was before separation, do we see 
them to be self-separations in the sensual, having not the spirit. 
Their fruits and end are weighed in the even balance, and found 
to be in the dark, the Lo here and Lo there thou tellest of; and 
the presence of Christ is not with them, though the blind see it 
not ; who see not with the pure eye, which is single, but with 
the many eyes, which lead into the many ways. Nor are any the 



56 

people of God, but who are baptized into this -principle of light • 
which all the faithful servants of the Lord were ever guided by 
in all ages, since the apostacy and before. For the apostacy 
was and is from the light ; and all that oppose the light are 
apostates, who contest against the truth, are enemies to it, and 
are not actuated by the Spirit, but have another way than the 
light. All such are in the world, its words, fashions, and cus- 
toms, though of several forms, as to their worship ; yet all under 
the god of this world, opposing the light and appearance of 
Christ, which should lead out from under his power, of what 
form soever they are ; yet are they all joined against the light. 
All these are of the world ; and fighting against them who are 
not of the world, but are gathered and gathering out of the 
world : so it ever was against the people of God, under what 
name soever. They only are saints by calling, who are called 
into the light ; and sons of Sion, which vary not from the light, 
to which the Spirit is promised, which is not tied to any forms 
out of the light; wherein all inherit, who are co-heirs with 
Christ ; which many talk of, who inherit the earthly, instead of 
the heavenly." 

Page 242. — "The next day, being market day, we were to 
cross a great water ; and not far from the place where we were to 
take boat, many of the market people drew to us ; amongst whom 
we had good service for the Lord, declaring the word of life and 
everlasting truth unto them, and proclaiming the day of the 
Lord amongst them, which was coming upon all wickedness ; 
and directing them to the light of Christ, which he the heavenly 
man had enlightened them withal ; by which they might see all 
their sins, and all their false ways, religions, worships and teach- 
ers : and by the same light might see Christ Jesus, who was come 
to save them, and lead them to God." 

Page 245. — " All friends of the Lord every where, whose 
minds are turned in towards the Lord, take heed to the light 
within you, which is the light of Christ ; which, as you love it, 
will call your minds inward, that are abroad in the creatures : 
so your minds may be renewed by it, and turned to God in this 



51 

which is pure, to worship the living God, the Lord of hosts, o\ ei 
all the creatures." 

"The same light that calls in your minds out of the world 
(that are abroad), the same turns them to God, the Father of 
lights. Here in the pure mind is the pure God waited upon for 
wisdom from above ; the pure God is seen night and day, and 
the eternal peace, of which there is no end, enjoyed. People 
may have openings, and yet their minds go into the lusts of 
the flesh ; but there the affections are not mortified. Therefore 
hearken to that, take heed to that, which calls your minds out 
of the affections and lusts of the world to have them renewed. 
The same will turn your minds to God ; the same light will set 
your affections above; and bring you to wait for the pure 
wisdom of God from on high, that it may be justified in you. 
Wait all in that, which cklls in your minds and turns them to 
God; here is the true cross. That mind shall feed upon 
nothing that is earthly, but to keep in the pure light up to 
God, to feed upon the living good which comes from the living 
God. The Lord God Almighty be with you all, dear babes, 
and keep you all in his strength and power to his glory, over 
all the world, ye whose minds are called out of it, and turned 
to God, to worship the Creator and serve him, and not the 
creature. The light of God which calls the mind out of the 
creatures, and turns it to himself, brings into a being of endless 
joy and peace. Here is always a seeing God present, which is 
not known to the world, whose hearts are in the creatures, 
whose knowledge is in the flesh, whose minds are not renewed . 
Therefore all Friends, the seed of God, mind and dwell in, to 
reign over the unjust, and the power of the Lord dwell in you, 
to keep you clear in your understandings, that the seed of God 
may reign in you all ; the seed of God, which is but one in all, 
is Christ in the male and in the female, which the promise is 
to. Wait upon the Lord for the just to reign over the unjust, 
for the seed of God to reign over the seed of the serpent, and 
be the head ; and that all that is mortal may die : for out of 
that will rise presumption. So fare ye well, and God Almighty 
bless, guide, and keep you in his wisdom," 



58 

Page 277. — "The same light which lets you see sin and 
transgression, will let yon see the covenant of God, which 
blots out your sin and transgression, which gives victory and 
dominion over it, and brings into covenant with God. For 
looking down at sin, corruption, and distraction, ye are swallowed 
up in it; but looking at the light, which discovers them, ye 
will see over them. That will give victory, and ye will find 
grace and strength ; there is the first step to peace. That will 
bring salvation ; by it ye may see to the beginning, and the 
' glory that was with the Father before the world began ;' and 
come to know the seed of God, which is the heir of the promise 
of God, and of the world which hath no end, and which 
bruises the head of the serpent, who stops people from coming 
to God ; that ye may feel the power of an endless life, the 
power of God which is immortal, which brings the immortal 
soul up to the immortal God, in whom it doth rejoice." 

Page 274.—" To the light of Jesus Christ in all your 
consciences I speak, which cannot lie, nor err, nor bear false 
witness ; but doth bear witness for God, and cries for equity, 
justice and righteousness to be executed." 

Well, here is testimony I think sufficient to the " only 
foundation," Christ, the light, " on which the church is 
built,' ' and also, to " the sole ground of the christian's 
hopes." And if the author of the " Strictures" will 
" compare George Fox's memorable words," in his 
epistle to the governor of Barbadoes, he will find that 
they all correspond ; and if upon this point, " the only 
foundation of our hopes," he still insists that those 
sentiments " are utterly opposed to those which 
Friends have always felt it to be their duty and privi- 
lege to uphold," I must again refer him to the 13th 
page of his " Strictures," where he will find it written 
"that every one, who has with any care examined the 
subject, must be aware that these," &c. 






59 

We now proceed to other " Strictures." Joseph 
Gurney makes extracts from pages 57, 75, 208 of 
"The Truth Vindicated," in which passages he says, 
the " Holy Scriptures are here described as the letter 
that killeth," — as " a mere dead letter," and " a mere 
written, or printed book." But are these terms, I ask, 
applied to them in an unqualified or unrestricted sense ? 
Not at all. And here again, the author of the 
" Strictures" affords us a lamentable illustration of that 
uncandid, blind, and uncharitable spirit, which an 
overweening confidence in our own abilities, (poor 
worms as we are) is ever apt to engender. I have 
spoken of the scriptures in the sense of " a dead 
letter,'' &c. as abstracted from the Holy Spirit, which 
alone can give them life, and I earnestly request the 
impartial attention of every one desirous of reading 
with their own eyes and judging with their own 
rightly -disposed understandings, to refer to the passages 
themselves and see if it is not so. I repeat, the scrip- 
tures are there spoken of in the sense of "a dead 
letter," &c. under this expi^ess restriction, for their 
various uses, their divine authority, &c are abundantly 
testified to in many parts of "The Truth Vindicated," 
when opened to the understanding, or applied to the 
heart, by Him, without whose quickening influence, 
even man himself cannot become " a living soul." 
M Our author" might with as much propriety call the 
dead bodies of the Prophets and Apostles themselves, 
'* spirit and life,'' as he does the mere words which 
they wrote, without any reference to the life-giving 
presence of the Almighty. He talks farther on about 
Popery, (I ask his excuse, I see by reference it is 



60 

Roman Catholics) however, " the Papists never paid much 
greater adoration to the bones, and other personal 
relics of departed saints, than do the generality of 
protestants to the translations of copies of the words 
that they have spoken or written, and yet, alas ! they 
come not unto Christ, that they might have life." 
Has the author of the " Strictures" ever heard of two 
sorts of faith, a dead faith and a living faith ? Can 
that faith be any other than a dead faith, which is not 
begotten by the Author of the faith " which overcomes 
the world?" And by a parity of reason, can Joseph 
John tell us how the words of a hundred different 
languages, (for such is the Bible now) can be any 
other than dead letters de facto, unless renewed with 
life, by Him who out of the stones, as well as letters, 
if he sees meet, can raise up children unto Abraham ? 
It is in this restricted sense then, I again repeat, that 
the scriptures are called " a dead letter," &c. and in no 
other ; yet thus earnestly contending for the sole and 
undivided supremacy of the Holy Spirit, the author of 
"The Truth Vindicated," " anonymous as he is," is to 
be charged with deism, and speaking in disrespectful 
terms of the Holy Scriptures. This author of the 
". Strictures," who is either blind and cannot see the 
sense in which those things are both implied and 
expressed, or who is perverse and will not, appears to be 
on such remarkably good terms with his own judg- 
ment, that he pays no regard whatever to this point ; 
but, as if calculating that every one else will do equal 
homage to the same idol, condescends to scarcely any 
other refutation than his own overwhelming ipse dixit ; 
" 1" conceive it to be a very dangerous mistake," 



61 

writes he, '' to speak of the Holy Scriptures as the 
" letter which killeth.' " Ergo, it must be a dangerous 
mistake. 

And as to " confounding an individual's own sug- 
gestions with Holy Scriptures/ ' in the extract alluded 
to by the " Stricture" writer, I would fain know what 
other than a man's own suggestions, or the suggestions 
of Satan, can he minister from, if he ministers not 
from ' the Spirit which giveth life P 1 The question 
there put to I. C, remains as good for J. J. G. r or 
any one else, and according as truth shall respond, 
so will the source from whence the ministry springs, 
be most certainly discovered. But it is not true that 
the Holy Scriptures "are described" in the passage 
quoted by "our author," as the " letter which killeth." 
The words Holy Scriptures, or any other terms equivalent 
to them, do not even ajjpear in it. It is quite bad enough 
for him to pervert the meaning of my own expressions, 
but to assert that the terms of his constructions are my 
actual descriptions, when they are not so, is one of those 
sort of " Strictures" which if denominated by its right 
name, would probably " shock" the " Stricture" 
maker's "feelings as a man and his principles as a 
christian." I would have " our author" reflect how- 
ever that a man may be " a minister of the letter which 
killeth," without necessarily confining his ministry to 
the letter of holy scripture. He might as a dead letter 
minister, treat us with commentaries on the Koran, 
or recite us sermons from the Jewish Talmud. 

Before I proceed to make selections from the writings 
of our early Friends, upon the several important points 
that present themselves at this stage of the discussion, 

G 



62 

I shall make a few explanatory observations, in re- 
ference to the quotations made from their writings, 
by the author of the " Strictures." 

In the first place it is worthy of observation, how 
scanty are the extracts from these voluminous writings. 
The few detached sentences which are held up as 
embodying their opinions has very much the appearanc 
that " our author" was conscious he had undertaken 
" to prove" what was not the fact, viz., that " the author 
of ' The Truth Vindicated' advances sentiments 
utterly opposed to those which Friends have always 
felt it to be their duty and privilege to uphold." 

It must be remembered that although George Fox, 
and the rest of his friends, were always willing to 
acknowledge holy scriptures to be the words of God, 
yet that acknowledgment was understood to be in a 
qualified sense, as was also the term " dead letter," &c. 
and this the author of the " Strictures," must or ought 
to know, and knowing it, should not have so far 
transgressed the laws of fair argument, as to apply 
them in support of his views, in an altogether unquali- 
fied sense. 

With regard also to the canon of Scripture, they 
were not " accustomed to apply the words of our 
Lord at the conclusion of the Apocalypse," as expressive 
of their belief, that from the first word of Genesis, to 
the last w r ords of that passage, was included all Scrip- 
ture that had been written by inspiration of God : bu} 
they believed, and they sufficiently evince their belief, 
that these anathemas referred to those who should add 
to or detract from " the whole system of truth," as 
therein revealed ; and not from or to the mere declara- 



63 

tion or Scripture of that truth. If this be not its mean- 
ing, you have no right to translate Scriptures out of the 
languages in which they were written, for in so doing 
you take all those words away, and put other words in 
their stead, But then, say you, the truth is the same ; 
which is at once yielding us the point we contend for. 

It must also be understood that in the acknowledg- 
ment made by our early Friends, that " the Holy 
Scriptures are the only fit outward judge of controversy," 
still the "paramount authority of the Spirit," at all 
times and under all circumstances, was not excluded ; and 
when speaking of the Scriptures as a judge, &c. it was 
but as an outward one, subordinate to the inward. And, 
since from the Spirit they (the Scriptures) derive all their 
efficacy ; since "it is the originating power from which 
the Scriptures themselves proceeded/' they could do no 
otherwise than cheerfully " admit as a positive, certain 
maxim, that whatsoever any do pretending to the 
Spirit, which is contrary to the Scriptures, be accounted 
and reckoned a delusion of the devil. " For it is very 
obvious, that what has the devil for its source, and 
that which has the Holy Spirit for its source, can bear 
no similitude to each other. Joseph John Gurney's 
quotations therefore, warily as they are introduced, do 
not, as will be seen by the above remarks, even touch 
the principle, in support of which they are brought 
forward, viz., " That in every case of doubt or contro- 
versy, in relation to matters either of doctrine, or moral 
principle, the decision of Scripture is ultimate, and that 
there lies no appeal from it to any higher authority 
whatsoever." 

The author of the " Strictures'' has to be sure a 



64 

most felicitous knack of overcoming a difficulty, at 
least, in his own estimation : we have had proofs of 
this some few pages back, for he will take your own 
words out of your own sentences, and substitute others 
in their places, rather than not come off victorious ; it 
is therefore not very suprising to find him writing 
thus — " The comparison which some of the early 
Friends were accustomed to institute between the 
Spirit as the primary rule, and the Scripture as the 
secondary one, was not intended, as / conceive, to apply 
to the question of authority, but only to that of order 
and dignity." Exquisite distinction ! Important dis- 
covery ! How appropriately " our author" might in 
this place have given us a line from Pope, as he has, 
in his title page given us one from Bacon, 

" Order is heaven's first law/' &c. — Pope. 

But to be serious, whether the author of the " Stric- 
tures" is so or not ; was it not, I ask, the paramount 
authority of the Spirit that was asserted by the early 
Friends ? Most undoubtedly it was. Then of what w T orth 
are the conceptions of Joseph John Gurney, in the face 
of a most undeniable fact ? Why no more than the 
dried ink of the paper upon which they were brought 
forth. It was only a sort of make-believe superiority 
contended for by our early Friends : according to this 
conceit— sl nominal, but not an actual superiority. But 
does not " our author" know, that degrees of order and 
dignity are indications of corresponding degrees of 
authority ? Does he not know that the order and dignity 
of the judge, bespeak a higher degree of authority than 
the order and dignity of his amanuensis ? 



65 

A man occupying the responsible station of a pro- 
fessed Gospel minister, should certainly conduct himself 
as a controversialist with at least common fairness ; but 
whether this writer's imprudent zeal has blinded his 
judgment, or whether his judgment is of that nature 
as not very exactly to regard truth, I do not pre- 
tend to decide ; but to one of these two causes must 
the following, among other erroneous statements most 
surely be ascribed. In the extract which he makes 
from the 64th page of " The Truth Vindicated," we 
find the sentence concludes thus — M and hence we find 
that those principles of moral action which are most 
clearly revealed in the hearts of all, and distinctly 
testified of in the Scriptures, are nevertheless, obscured 
or subdued, misunderstood, or entirely neglected, by 
bringing down their authority to be tested by a standard 
which our own carnal desires or interests have erected." 
Upon which the " Stricture' ' writer, (to use his own 
words,) makes the " shameless declaration," that "the 
Scriptures are here represented as a standard erected by 
men's carnal desires and interests," Really, the terms 
"false, and audacious," are choice expressions from 
this man's mouth. — I say the Scriptures are not "here 
represented as a standard erected by men's carnal 
desires and interests," but they are represented as 
distinctly testifying to " those principles of moral 
action, which (by the light) are most clearly revealed 
in the hearts of all." Was this writer sitting in 
his chair, or standing upon his head, when this 
" Stricture" issued forth from his censorium ! Can the 
Stricture writer dare deny, that men's carnal desires 
and interests have given, and do give an interpretation 

g2 



66 

to the Scriptures, and that this interpretation is set up 
as a standard by which even the "principles of moral 
action/' are but too frequently tested ? But whether 
this be admitted or not, yet that interpretation of the 
Scriptures, and not the Scriptures themselves, as opened 
by the Holy Spirit, is the standard here represented, or 
alluded to. Turn back, Joseph Gurney, to the 6th 
page of thy " Strictures," and re-peruse thy own re- 
marks about an " evil eye." 

With respect to the canon of Scripture, although 
I shall make ample quotations from our early Friends' 
writings on this head, I may observe that the " honest 
author" of the " Strictures," as Philo calls him, neither 
attempts to invalidate the arguments which are urged 
in " The Truth Vindicated" on this head, nor does he 
prove the correctness of his own assertions. His 
charges of falsehood and audacity would have been a 
little more seemly, had he made but a feeble effort to 
substantiate them. 

I must explain to " our author," that the Holy Scrip- 
tures are not described in " The Truth Vindicated" 
as an " Eden of men's own planting," — but that this 
and similar expressions, bear reference to " the formation 
of the canon, and ultimate rule, &c." and not to the 
origin of the Scriptures themselves. But to drop the 
Hgure and to speak literally ; we are told in the second 
chapter and ninth verse of the book of Genesis, that 
" The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden ;" 
andin the ninth chapter, and twentieth verse of the same 
book we are told that '* Noah began tobe a husbandman, 
and that he planted a vineyard." Now, Joseph John, 
who was the maker of the trees, that were planted in this 



67 

Eden, and in this vineyard ? " The Lord God" doubt- 
less. Yes, but though he made the trees, yet it was 
only man who plan ted one garden, and He who planted 
the other. And so, though Holy Scripture was given 
forth " by holy men. as they were moved by the Holy 
Spirit" yet it is man, who has formed some of them 
into a canon, — it is man, who has made an "Eden of 
them, after the device of his own heart/' and who ex- 
cludes all from " the true knowledge of God, of his 
holy law, and of the gospel of life and salvation," 
that the Almighty has seen meet, in his inscrutable 
wisdom, to place without its privileged pales. 

Why did not Joseph John Gurney give us plain 
answers to the plain questions, which are put in the 
extracts he has made from "The Truth Vindicated ?" 
Why did he not tell us e< where and when did the com- 
mission issue forth from the li King of kings and Lord 
of lords," that any man or body of men, should appoint 
a standard, and a test out of such writings as they should 
approve ; that these should take the judgment seat, and 
that the Holy Spirit, before his influences are to be 
heeded, must be brought up to the bar and judged by 
the judge, that they have appointed ?" Where was it, 
Joseph John Gurney, and when was it that this com- 
mission issued forth: has it been since the ''eminent 
Biblical critics of the last one hundred and fifty years have 
given us the result of their labours, or was it before these 
extraordinary personages made their appearance ? 

The Author of the " Strictures" says that the Divine 
origin of that series of books which compose the Old 
Testament, as distinguished from any other books of 
the Hebrews — is established by many evidences, and by 



68 

the express authority of our Lord Jesus Christ and his 
Apostles. That of the several books of the New 
Testament, as distinguished from all other existing 
Christian writings, is matter of no mere priestly de- 
cision, but of sober, substantial, and rational proof." 
This is a piece of mere vapid declamation, and empty 
assertion. We know that they are " distinguished from 
all other existing Christian writings, " but that is an 
evasion of the point. The question is, were they rightly 
distinguished, by those who first selected them from all 
other Christian writings, and who came to the decision, 
that they, and they alone of all other Christian writings, 
should be the sole rule of faith and practice, and that 
from that time, henceforth, and for ever, the Holy 
Spirit would no more inspire his devoted and faithful 
servants, to give forth by writing his mind and will 
concerning the church, to their edification, consolation 
and hope ? If Joseph John Gurney cannot demonstrate 
to us, that "they who first drew this boundary line, 
and thus specifically denned the exact quantum of 
writing that should be pre-eminently distinguished by 
the appellation of the word or words of God, and that 
to this precise canon (as they term it,) all future reve- 
lations of God, howsoever immediate to the soul, 
should be brought as to an " ultimate test" before it was 
possible that their authority could be acknowledged — 
unless, I say, Joseph John Gurney can most clearly 
demonstrate, that these canon makers had authority 
from God himself to make this selection, ordain this 
test, and subject even the influences of the Holy Spirit 
thereto, then what is it all, but " the wisdom of man/' 
upon which this canon is founded, instead of " the 
power of God ?" 






69 

Such is the difference between the Author of the 
" Strictures" and myself, that he appears to conceive 
Christianity falls to the ground, "if any other books 
written by holy men, might have been fixed upon for the 
purpose with just the same propriety." Whereas,! feel 
persuaded, that Christianity can neither fall nor stand. 
by either the negative or affirmative of this proposition, 
" Heaven and earth shall pass away," said Christ, " but 
my words shall ?zo£pass away." So that whatever " our 
author's " faith may rest upon, whether on " the ]abours 
of eminent biblical critics," or on a certain portion of 
" copies or translations of copies of the writings of holy 
men," yet I know that Chrsitianity rests upon neither, and 
that if by some un-foreseen event, all these things should 
be swept from the world to morrow, it could not make 
what has been done not to have been done, Christ would 
nevertheless have died for our sins, have risen for our justi- 
fication, and would yet " be sitting at the right hand of 
God where he ever liveth to make intercession for us," and 
so long as we walked in that light, which lighteth every 
man that cometh into the world, would "the blood of 
Jesus Christ cleanse us from all sin," " Christianity, 
the religion of the Bible/' is to love the Lord thy God 
with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy 
strength, and thy neighbour as thyself; "upon these 
hang all the law and Prophets," and to suppose that this 
could not be done; to conceive, that the " grace of God 
which bringeth salvation, and which hath appeared to 
all men," would not be sufficient to enable us to accom- 
plish these duties, " if any other books written by holy 
men might have been fixed upon for the purpose," (of a 
test and standard..) "with just the same propriety," as 



TO 

that those form the canon, is a scepticism of no diminu- 
tive kind, inasmuch as it leads to positive Atheism. " Our 
author" a little farther back stated " the sole ground of 
the Christian's hopes" to be " the free mercy of God in 
him " (Christ). Now " the sole ground, " appears to be 
the canon or letter of Scripture ; this is now made the 
sine qua non ; for without it " I conceive," (and if I 
conceive, who shall dispute ?) " Christianity, the religion 
of the Bible, falls to the ground." 

4 ' Christians of every denomination" (writes our 
author) "have hitherto united, not only in saying, but 
in firmly believing, that all the writings of the Old and 
New Testament are Holy Scripture.' ' I give this 
assertion a positive denial, if the terms of Old and New 
Testament are employed to designate in an exclusive 
3ense those writings only that usually go under that 
appellation. Our early Friends made a distinction, if 
modern professors do not, which I shall presently prove. 
All that is recorded in the Scriptures of truth is not equally 
holy, although all may have been "written for our 
instraction/' &c. There areo many genealogical tables, 
and matters of daily occurrence, such as Paul's request 
to have his cloak brought to him from Troas, &c, which 
certainly do not in their own nature demand the same 
high and expressive title affixed to them, as do those 
express commands of duty, or clear narrations of impor^ 
tant facts, which the Holy Spirit of God more immediately 
moved his servants to commit to writing. For although 
all holy men are regulated in all they do, by the dic- 
tates of the Spirit, and have an eye therein to God's 
glory, yet it does not necessarily follow that every 
action which in itself bears reference only to the in- 



71 

different things of time should be denominated after the 
same manner, as should those which bear reference to 
the things of eternity. 

As for " the hackneyd objection about transcription, 
translation, &c. as affecting the practical authority and 
usefulness of the Holy Scriptures," li anonymous as he 
is," the author of the " The Truth Vindicated " dares to 
insinuate, and even to assert," in express contradiction 
to the assertion of Joseph John Gurney, that it ought 
to " have place among the professors of Christianity." 
And the place that it ought to have is this, viz. that out 
of that " light which maketh all things manifest," and by 
which only the deep things of God are revealed, all is 
uncertainty and confusion; that without this " Key of 
Knowledge," to open the Scriptures, we shall either be 
slow of heart to believe all that the Prophets have 
spoken ; or else, if believing, it will be a faith founded 
upon the decision of our own judgments, or " the labours 
of those eminent biblical critics," whose arguments pos- 
sess the greatest sway over our minds. For " our author's" 
assertion to have possessed any weight, he should have 
proved that the objection w r as untrue, not that it was 
hackneyed, But the objection about transcription, &c. 
is not more " hackneyed" than the " precious evidence," 
which Joseph Gurney speaks of, and which was 
generally resorted to by the opponents of our early 
friends. (See Baxter, Vincent, Owen, and others.) Why 
it is impossible that the original manuscripts of even the 
books that we possess, could have been inspected at 
any one time by any of the canon-making councils that 
ever assembled in foro ecclesiastico. How then does 
" our author" know, after the various channels through 



72 

which these books have passed, "that they have been 
handed down from age to age, without any material in- 
jury " that all the various readings which have arisen 
from this copying and recopying, have failed to deprive 
us of a single doctrinal sentiment, of a single moral 
principle, or of a single historical record ? We find in 
the fourth chapter, thirty-first verse of first Kings that 
Solomon " spake three thousand proverbs ; and his songs 
were a thousand andy^e." And even if we admit that 
the book of Proverbs, of which Solomon is the reputed 
author, were all written by him, still there is above two 
thousand wanting to make the number complete. But 
what are lost, according to Joseph Gurney's mode of 
reasoning, could be of no more use than waste paper, 
for not " a single doctrinal sentiment nor a single moral 
principle " have we been deprived of. They must have 
been a peculiar kind of proverbs. Amongst many 
other references made in the Scriptures that we do 
possess, to books of Scripture that we do not possess, 
we find the following in the second Chronicles, ninth 
chapter, twenty-ninth verse. " Now the rest of the 
acts of Solomon, first and last, are they not written in 
the book of Nathan the Prophet, and in the prophecy 
of Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the 
seer, against Jeroboam the son of Nebat." Now I 
must really run the risk of a reiteration of the charges 
of falsehood and audacity, by expressing my belief, 
that those above cited books contained several" histori- 
cal records/' for the Scriptures that we have, expressly 
declare that they did. 

Thankful therefore as we may and ought to feel for 
the preservation of so much as we possess, it is not 



73 

" evidence" to prove we have lost nothing, because we 
have not lost all ! 

There is really so much to which I see it right to 
object in these " Strictures/ 1 such a little " wholesome 
food/' and so much " poison," that considering the 
ample quotations which I think proper to introduce, I 
shall be obliged to pass by what I should otherwise 
notice. But I cannot refrain, ere I proceed to my next 
list of quotations, to make a few more observations 
upon some of these " Strictures;" one of which runs 
thus, " The fact is however, first, that the Bible, like 
all other books, must be interpreted according to the 
common and intelligible rules of language * secondly, 
that although its contents are often wrested from their 
true meaning, that meaning, on all points essential to 
salvation, is as clear as the noon- day ; and thirdly, that on 
these points the great body of the professing church of 
Christ is substantially agreed.' ' The author in some 
part of his " Strictures," talks about a form of infide- 
lity, which " dares to assume the name of Quakerism." 
Whatever form of infidelity may assume this name, 
certain I am, that the sentiments conveyed in the above 
" Stricture, " are a most daring assumption of that name. 
If it is " the fact, first, that the Bible like all other 
books must be interpreted according to the common and 
intelligible rules of language," one would suppose that 
there were not " many things in the epistles of Paul 
which were hard to be understood : " if they " must be 
interpreted like all other books," what need of the 
Holy Spirit, which (in the " Advices -issued by the 
Society of Friends, 1720, " and quoted in Appendix 2 
of the " Strictures,") is declared to be the source u from 

H 



74 

whence they came, and by which they are truly opened?" 
So then after all it appears this " ultimate rule/ 9 this ade- 
quate and only written test, must have rules for its 
interpretation, but not the rule of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
mind, for this " involves the danger of a very fatal 
heresy/' but the common and intelligible rules of 
language. 1 ' I will just submit a passage to Joseph John 
Gurney's consideration, and ask him ivhat are the 
" rules of language," by which it is to be interpreted. 
" And he (Jesus) took bread, and gave thanks, and 
brake it, and gave unto them, saying, this is my body 
which is given for you : this do in remembrance of 
me." — Luke xxii. 19. Does Joseph John Gurney 
mean to say, that " the common and intelligible rules 
of language," by which he would interpret it, would 
be the same " common and intelligible rules," by which 
the Roman Catholic would interpret it, or by which the 
Lutheran or Calvinist would interpret it ? And if the 
same " common and intelligible rules," are resorted to 
by all, how is it their interpretations do not agree? 
How is it that the Jews do not avail themselves of these 
" common and intelligible rules of language ?f And, 
what sort of rules are those by which they interpret the 
prophecies, of their own Prophets in reference to the com- 
ing of the Messiah, as not being yet fulfilled ? Oh ! they 
are " wrested from their true meaning," I suppose " our 
author" would reply ; they " must be interpreted by the 
common and intelligible rules of language," which Jem- 
ploy, and then their interpretations would most undoubt- 
edly be the same ! In short all should put the same inter- 
pretation upon them as I do, and then there would be no 
differences! Although "the common and intelligible 



75 

rules of language," must be the interpreter of the 
Bible, still in referenced the various interpretations thatare 
putupon it, we must denominate the amount andnatureof 
those differences by the uncommon and unintelligible rales. 
And although there are arguments " adduced against 
Protestants by Roman Catholics/' although the latter 
declare it to be essential for the soul to go into purga- 
tory before it goes into heaven, while the Protestants 
declare it is no such thing — although the Catholics say 
that the Pope is the head of the church, and some of 
the Protestants that it is the King — although the 
Catholics declare that their Clergy have the power to 
give absolution from sin, and the Protestants declare 
they have not — although the latter, with the exception of 
Friends, plead for the continuance of sin, for the whole 
term of life — although their ministers are ordained ac- 
cording to the laws of human appointment, and are "hire- 
Imgs and deceivers," according to the principles of 
Friends ; although through the means of these " hirelings 
and deceivers, "the fires of persecution have lighted many 
a martyr to his grave, and blood now stains the earth 
for their cause ; yet we must resort here to the uncom- 
mon and unintelligible " rules of language," and make 
the " shameless declaration," that " on all points essen- 
tial to salvation, the great body of the professing church 
of Christ is substantially agreed." So that it is as " clear 
as the noon- day," that if they " substantially" agree in 
their differences , they "substantially" differ in their 
agreement. "That the genuine principles of the 
Society of Friends lead into no such awful confusion, 
will (I hope) be readily acknowledged by those who 
are best acquainted with their tenets and history," 



76 

" That the Bible, like all other books , must be inter - 
preted according to the common and intelligible rules of 
language !" Does the author of the " Strictures" 
think that rottenness has penetrated to the heart's core 
of the Society ? Does he think that all are willing to 
bow the knee to Baal — that there are none who are 
ready to answer the call to go up to Ramoth- Gilead to 
battle? Does he think that " thick darkness' ' so far 
overspreads the Society, that he can palm off this 
assertion upon their benighted minds, as a doctrine of 
Christianity and genuine Quakerism ? If he so thinks, 
I am animated with the hope, that he will be most 
egregiously disappointed. 

The author of the " Strictures 7 ' is as unjust in the 
inferences he draws from "certain parts" of "The 
Truth Vindicated," as he is weak and erroneous in the 
arguments with which he assails it. His strength is 
only in his name, and were it not for this, the " Stric- 
tures," I verily believe would never have been noticed 
by me. He first insinuates, and then declares, that I 
have treated "the contents of the Holy Scriptures, in 
the character of past and obsolete revelations. Really 
he has need to be oft reminded to peruse his own re- 
marks about an "evil eye." Now, obsolete, we know,, 
means out of use, and to say that I have thus treated 
"the contents of the Holy Scriptures," when I have 
most expressly testified to their usefulness, under the 
direction of the Holy Spirit, in several parts of " The 
Truth Vindicated," and in no one sentence throughout 
applied either obsolete or any other similar term to their 
contents, is really employing the weight and reputation 
of a name for a very unworthy purpose. That I have 



77 

treated them as past revelations is true, but that I have 
treated them as obsolete revelations is false, and if I 
were even to add that choice word of " our author's," 
" audacious," it would not be malapropos, although in 
an anonymous author, our " Stricture" writer might deem 
it " unseemly and violent language." And in their simple 
character of Scripture, is it not true that they are 
" records of revelations made in ages past." And of the 
dealings of God with men some of whom have been dead, 
some hundreds, and most even thousands of years ago ?" 
But how from this fact " it plainly follows, that, practi- 
cally speaking, they are to us "passes and obsolete," 
Joseph Gurney does not condescend to inform us. He 
says so and that is all. What " plainly follows," how- 
ever from these facts is, that if there is such a thing 
as immediate revelation now, then that which is only 
mediate, which is only ■ " a declaration of those things 
which were surely believed," — Luke i. 1. ; that which 
" like all other books," as the " Stricture" writer says, 
" must be interpreted according to the common and 
intelligible rules of language," and which is interpreted 
by a vast variety of rules, cannot either de esse or de 
facto, be so high a rule, or so sure a testimony as that 
which brings its own evidence in itself, which needs 
neither " the labours of eminent biblical critics" to 
elucidate, nor "the common and intelligible rules of 
language" to interpret it, but which " is nigh thee, in 
thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou may est do it." 
Even prophane history, as it is called, has its use on 
several accounts, and the events which it records have 
a certain prospective bearing upon the actions and 
sentiments of mankind, so that even this description 

H 2 



78 

of history, cannot with propriety be said to be "passe 
and obsolete to us," much less then can it be so said 
of Sacred history. This writer's inference therefore, 
is ridiculous in the extreme, yes, so palpably errone- 
ous, that even a child of tolerable capacity with a little 
assistance must perceive its error. 

The author of the " Strictures/' on the strength of 
his assumption, asks us ' ' above all, what becomes of 
our dependence on the efficacy of those by-gone facts, 
the incarnation, atoning sacrifice, and glorious resur- 
rection and ascension of the eternal Son of God ? 
Here surely," he continues, " is a point of supreme 
importance. There can, I think, be no question that 
this author's peculiar method of treating the contents 
of the Holy Scriptures, in the character of past and 
obsolete revelations, discards from our notice, and even 
from our creed, that mighty plan of redemption 
through the blood of Jesus Christ on which hang all 
the hopes and all the virtues of the Christian believer." 

In the first place, I must again observe that I have 
not '* treated the contents of the Holy Scriptures, in 
the character of obsolete revelations ; but to deny that 
those revelations are past, which are only declared of in 
the Scriptures of truth, would blend all time into the 
present ; and we might just as well contend for the 
actual bodily existence of all the holy men, who were 
the subjects of those revelations, as to say the narra- 
tives of these are the revelations themselves, in the 
same power and authority , as they were to those who 
have left them upon record. If Joseph John Gurney 
will believe himself, that is, if he will be consistent in 
the nature of his belief, one would think that he must 



79 

believe so too ; for has he not told us, " that the Bible, 
like all other books, must be interpreted according to the 
common and intelligible rules of language ? " Now revela- 
tion requires no interpretation, for it is interpretation 
itself, or a making known to us that which we did not 
know before. That an account of some of the revelations, 
which God made to holy men of old, has come down 
to us through books or Scripture is true, and he to 
whom those truths are sealed by the revelation of the 
same Holy Spirit "in the secret of the soul," has a 
sweet and more " precious evidence" of their truth, 
than he who turns self-interpreter, and would unfold 
the heavenly mysteries therein declared of, by the same 
methods of human invention that he would apply to " all 
other books." Thus, according to these principles, '* our 
dependence on the efficacy of those by-gone facts, the 
incarnation, atoning sacrifice, and glorious resurrection 
and ascension of the eternal Son of God," is made to 
rest in the first place upon the mere external knowledge 
of those facts, as interpreted " by the common and 
intelligible rules of language ;" for though " the 
enlightening influence of the Holy Ghost/' is admitted 
in this system, as being "absolutely indispensible to a 
saving apprehension (an odd term) of the truths con- 
tained in the sacred volume," yet this only comes 
second in order. I am willing however to think, that 
thou wert unobservant of the entire consequences of 
thy own statements, which, if not a culpable ignorance, 
must draw upon our compassion, rather than our 
severity. As there were believers before Christ was 
offered up " without the gates of Jerusalem;" as there 
were those who could say from blessed experience, " I 



oU 



know that my Redeemer liveth," so from the like bles- 
sed experience have the hopes and virtues of the Chris- 
tian believer been encouraged and sustained, since 
that offering was accomplished ; and though the Holy- 
Scriptures are undoubtedly the medium by which the 
history of those facts are, by the inscrutable will and 
wisdom of the Almighty, conveyed to us, yet what 
avails the mere literal knowledge of that history, to 
man's salvation, since " unless a man be born again, he 
can in no wise enter into the kingdom of God." 

It was not by Scripture that Simon Peter knew 
Christ as his Saviour, nor was it even by Christ's visible 
and external presence in the flesh. " But whom," said 
Christ to his disciples, " say ye that I am ? And 
Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, 
the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and 
said unto him, blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona, for 
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my 
Father which is in heaven." Matt. xvi. 16, 17. 

The author of the " Strictures" makes the following 
observations upon an extract from page 133, of "The 
Truth Vindicated." " Since the author of ' The 
Truth Vindicated' is utterly incapable of accounting 
for any other rule than the Spirit of Christ in the heart r 
the good old Christian doctrine that the Holy Scriptures 
are a divinely authorised rule of faith and practice, 
must of course be regarded as passing the limits of his 
conception.' ' 

Now, I must request the impartial attention of the 
reader to the quotations from the Holy Scriptures, in 
this part of " The Truth Vindicated," preceding the 
remark that no " other rule could be accounted 



81 

for, " and he will find that this expression bears reference 
solely to the words of the Apostle, who had been ad- 
vising the churches, to " mind the same rule," by- 
obedience to which they had already attained to a cer- 
tain spiritual state, and which secured the blessings of 
peace and mercy ; so that as far as the Apostle's 
express advice and benediction is therein concerned, I 
must repeat "my utter incapacity to account for any 
other rule by which we are to be led, and by which we 
are to walk, than the blessed Spirit of Christ. '' It 
remains therefore for our " Stricture" writer to shew 
how the Apostle meant two rules, when he was speak- 
ing only of one and the " same'' For " good and old," 
as the " Christian doctrine" may be " that the Holy 
Scriptures are a divinely authorised rule of faith and 
practice," it is neither so good nor so old as the rule 
the Apostle was speaking of ; and little did he think, 
most likely, that the rule he was then recommending, 
would in future ages be denominated a "heresy," by 
those who called themselves Christian ministers ; and 
that what he was then writing, with some other writ- 
ing that was yet to come, both of his own and other 
Apostles, as they were moved thereto, should be bound 
up together with certain other writings of holy men, 
and either to the total exclusion of the rule which he 
recommended, or the reservation of it to what some 
future '* Stricture" writer should deem " three important 
points," be appointed " the judge and test," and that 
"from it" there should be "no appeal" " to any higher 
authority ivhatsoever." 

The Sciptures are acknowledged to be a rule in " the 
Truth Vindicated," but a rule (mind) completely sub- 



82 

ordinate to the Spirit. And if any passage is so con- 
structed as to show an apparent doubt upon such 
admission, its application is confined, to distinguish the 
nature of the one rule from that of the other, for whilst 
there is Scriptural authority for the one, there is no 
Scriptural authority for the other, as to the precise 
word rule itself. A rule therefore the Scriptures are 
acknowledged to be, yet as " one of the most eminent 
of the early Friends, Richard Claridge," said, " as 
great a value as I have for them, neither I nor any one 
else ought to set them in competition with, or give them 
the preference to, the Spirit of truth, by which they 
were given forth, and from which they do receive all 
their authority , worth and usefulness." Therefore the 
Spirit by pre-eminence y is called " the rule," and the 
Scriptures " a rule," and even in the quotation which 
our " Stricture' ' writer has selected from the above- 
mentioned Richard Claridge, on this very point, the 
Holy Scriptures are only alluded to as an " outward rule 
and standard," and that not of "faith and practice," 
but of doctrine and practice ; neither is the superlative 
term affixed to them, in a single extract that Joseph 
John Gurney has made, either in his Strictures, or his 
Appendices, from individual writing, or public advices, 
but only in their character of an " outward rule." As 
for their being a " rule of faith," Joseph Gurney says 
is "the good old Christian Doctrine," he should have 
given us "good old Christian" authority for it, and 
given us chapter and verse out of the " adequate and only 
written test." That test tells us, that "Fait h is the 
gift of God." And if the Scriptures be also a gift 
(which I acknowledge) wilt thou tell me, Joseph Gurney, 



which is the greater gift of the two. If faith, then, 
according to thy " peculiar method of treating the con- 
tents of the Holy Scriptures," the lesser is a rule for the 
greater. But if thou shouldest say, the Holy Scriptures 
are the greater, how was it that the Apostle Paul did 
not think of informing us, " and now abideth faith," 
Holy Scripture, " hope, charity," these four, "but the 
greatest of these is" Holy Scripture and "charity." 
But what Scripture was it that was a rule for Abel's 
faith, and the faith of the long list of worthies, referred 
to in the Eleventh Chapter of the Hebrews, for " these," 
writes the Apostle, " all died in faith, not having 
received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and 
were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and con- 
fessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth" 
And again, will our writer of " Strictures" inform us, 
since " the limits of his comprehension," appear to have 
no termination but such as his own "conception," tra- 
dition, and the " eminent biblical critics" of the last one 
hundred and fifty years have assigned, will this man of 
" Strictures " I ask, inform us how it is, that if there be 
but " one Lord, one faith, and one baptism," there 
should have been one rule, or no rule for " the faith 
once delivered to the saints," and that there should be 
another rule for our faith ? Let our " Stricture " writer, I 
repeat, give us Chapter and verse for this "good old 
Christian doctrine ?" As for the " higher view " that 
Robert Barclay would have' entertained of the " substantial 
correctness of the text of the Old and New Testaments 
had he lived to witness the result of the labours of many 
eminent biblical critics, during the last one hundred 
and fifty years," it is as weak an observation, as could 



84 

well be put upon paper. As if the farther we are re~ 
moved by time and circumstances from the external 
means of establishing its " substantial correctness," 
the nearer we arrive to truth and certainty. What a 
prodigious advancement herein the eminent critics of 
the next one hundred and fifty-years to come, will insure ; 
and as for those in the succeeding one hundred and 
fifty, if Joseph John should live to witness the result of 
their labours, how insignificant in comparison would the 
labours of these poor critics appear ', to whom is attributed 
no very mean influence after all, even no less than that 
of giving Robert Barclay a higher view of the " substan- 
tial correctness of the text of the Old and New Testa- 
ments," than was vouchsafed to him by the Holy Spirit, 
from whose testimony, and not that of " biblical critics," 
his belief in them was established. " Yes I do believe 
in them," writes he in his Apology Vindicated, Sec. 5, 
" because the testimony of the Spirit in my heart obligeth 
me so to do." " For that I confess myself," says he 
also in his epistle to the reader prefixed to his Apology, 
" to be not only no imitator and admirer of the School- 
men, but an opposer and despiser of them as such, by whose 
labour I judge the Christian Religion to be so far from 
being bettered that it is rather destroyed." What a 
very shrewd man must our author of the " Strictures " 
be, to know that the labours of the same class of men 
during the last one hundred and fifty years, would 
have made this departed servant of Christ, a learner in 
that school which then he opposed and despised. Robert 
Barclay wanted none of thy ' ' eminent biblical critics," 
to make his expressions on a par with truth. ''For 
what I have written" says he, " I have heard with the 



85 

ears of my soul, and seen with my inward eyes, and 
my hands have handled of the Word of Life, and what 
hath been inwardly manifested to me of the things of 
God, that do I declare.' 1 Thy " eminent critics/ ' their 
labours, and all their heaps of stuff, which would 
amount by even a moderate calculation to more than a 
thousand times thrice told of the bulk of the Bible 
itself, is not w T orth the millionth part of a particle of 
dust as to " the truth as it is in Jesus/' without the 
witness of the Holy Spirit. "No man knoweth the 
Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal 
him/' There wants no "labours of eminent biblical 
critics " here, and if this revelation be wanting, whether 
critics or no critics, their labours will be all in 
vain. 

The author of the " Strictures "says, "when we speak 
of the Holy Scriptures in that character, of an ' ' ulti- 
mate appeal" which this writer not only denies, but 
treats as a subject of scorn and irony, we must be un- 
derstood as expressly reserving three important points ; 
first, that a measure of the Light of the Holy Spirit in- 
dependently of any outward revelation, shines in the 
consciences of all men, and shews them the distinctions 
between right and wrong ; secondly, that the peculiar 
calls and services of individual Christians cannot be set- 
tled by a reference to Scripture, but are matters of pro- 
vidential arrangement and direct divine guidance ; 
thirdly, that in order to a saving apprehension of the 
truths contained in the sacred volume, the enlightening 
influence of the Holy Ghost is absolutely indispensable." 

Well, here are " three important points," expressly 
reserved, in which the Holy Scriptures are acknow- 

i 



86 

ledged to be not an ultimate appeal. But why no 
more than three points reserved ! Why three, why not 
four — why not all! Is Joseph John Gurney empowered, 
thus to divide the authority and judgeship between the 
Holy Spirit and the Scriptures, so that the jurisdiction 
of the former extends only to " three important points" 
of his own dictatorial reservation, and that with these 
exceptions " the decision of the Scripture is ultimate ?" 
But does the light of the Holy Spirit do no more than 
"shew the distinctions between right and wrong?" 
Does He not enable us to reject the one and to choose 
the other ? Will He not lead us into " all truth" if we 
obey him ? and " as many as are led by the Spirit of 
God/' are they not sons of God? Rom. viii. 14. Are 
we not washed, are we not justified, are we not sancti- 
fied by the Spirit of our God? 1 Cor. vi. 11. But 
supposing, if the light of the Holy Spirit is confined, 
(which if thy own " ultimate appeal" is to be believed 
in preference to thyself, it cannot be) to the simple 
office of shewing men "the distinctions between right 
and wrong, what more can the Scriptures do ? Is not 
this the precise thing for which an "ultimate appeal" 
is required, viz. to sheiv the distinctions between right and 
wrong ? There is nothing in reference to thought, word, 
or deed, but must be either one or the other, and if 
" the Holy Spirit, independently of any outward revela- 
tion, shews the distinction, there can be nothing re- 
specting which its decision is not ultimate and infallibly 
certain ; how then does it unquestionably follow, that 
in every ^case of doubt or controversy, in relation to 
matters either of doctrine or moral principle, the de- 
cision of Scripture is ultimate ? as for " the peculiar 






87 

tails and services of individual Christians," they are 
included in " our author's" first important point. For 
those " calls and services," must be either right or wrong, 
and consequently the "distinction" and path of duty 
shewn. But it is not only to ' ' the peculiar calls and ser- 
vices of individual Christians," that the Almighty is 
graciously pleased to extend his providential care and 
guidance. His is an eye that never slumbers, an arm 
that is never idle; though he " speaketh once, yea, 
twice, and man perceiveth it not," yet is he not a God 
afar off ; for not even a sparrow can fall to the ground 
without his permission and care. I cannot but deeply 
lament, that a dependence upon mere externals should 
have so far blinded the understanding of an acknow- 
ledged minister of the Society, as to promulgate for 
Christian doctrine, that " the peculiar calls and services 
of individual Christians, are matters of providential 
arrangement and direct Divine guidance," as though it 
was not essential upon all occasions. " Whether ye 
eat or drink, or ivhatsoever ye do," said the Apostle, 
" do all to the glory of God." And if we " are not 
able to think even a good thought of ourselves," how 
requisite is his guidance and direction amidst those 
temptations which assail us, in the midst of our daily 
and hourly duties and concerns. 

The author of the " Strictures" really speaks of the 
Scripture, as if it was some living and active being, 
and all men were agreed upon the meaning of its 
decree. Whereas " the decision," as it is called, of this 
"ultimate appeal," is no more after all (apart from 
the Spirit's testimony) than Joseph Gurney's, or Bishop 
Home's, or Pope Leo's, or who knows who's decision 



88 

upon it — and though the decision may be, and is, a^ 
different as no and yes, yet we are told that " there is 
no appeal from it to any higher authority whatsoever ; 
for the simplest and most powerful of all reasons, — ■ 
namely, " that the authority of the declarations which 
God has made, is the authority of God himself." 

But simple and powerful as this reason may appear, 
I say that it is no reason to prove that " there lies no 
appeal from it (Scripture,) to any higher authority 
whatsoever," unless our " Stricture'' writer had first 
proved that God has made no " declarations' ' but by 
Scripture. He manifests his will by signs sometimes 
as well as by writings, Yea, " The heavens declare" 
(and are therefore declarations,) " the glory of God 
and the firmament sheweth his handy work. Day 
unto day utter eth speech, and night unto night sheweth 
knowledge. There is no speech nor language where 
their voice is not heard. Their line is gone out through 
all the earth, and their words to the end of the world/' 
And therefore, this " simple and most powerful of all 
reasons," is as good for one sort of "declaration" as 
another. In fact there are those termed deists, amongst 
w T hose writings the author of the Strictures has had 
the hardihood and " evil eye" to class " The Truth 
Vindicated," who make "the declarations of God" in 
the visible creation their "ultimate appeal;" and they 
have at least this advantage, that the declarations of 
one are universal and the other are not so. They are 
declarations alw T ays before our eyes, and such as leave 
the heathen, as well as us, " without excuse." But 
even these without the testimony of the Spirit, are not 
understood, for a beast may look upon them with his 



89 

natural eyes, the same as he can upon the Holy Scrip* 
tures ; and with no other eye does a man look upon 
them, unless the Holy Spirit of God enlightens his 
understanding. 

In reply to my "taunting enquiries respecting the 
parts of Scripture which we would select for our 
test," our author professes to give a very "plain an- 
swer,' * in doing which he unwarily proves the truth of 
what I have just said, viz. that after all, the "decision" 
of this " ultimate appeal,' 5 is no more than Joseph 
Gurney's, Bishop Home's, or Pope Leo's decision upon 
it. For he admits, that not the canon as it stands is 
the test, but that portion of it which they have "no 
difficulty in selecting." So that without the least re- 
ference to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, they make 
a selection of what the test is to be composed of, they 
nominate their own judge, dictate the charge he is to 
give, which " must be interpreted like all other books/* 
and then very pompously tell us, " there lies no appeal 
from it to any higher authority whatsoever," that is, from 
the authority of their " decision." 

This seems to be the highest rule after all, that 
Joseph Gurney is willing to acknowledge, for " to de- 
nominate our Lord Jesus Christ a Rule ;" says he, rt in- 
volves the danger of a very fatal heresy ; it obviously 
tends to divest him of his personality, and to convert 
him into a principle." It did not however so strike 
the Apostle Paul; He says, "For in Christ Jesus, 
neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircum- 
cision, but a new creature ; and as many as walk 
according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, 
and upon the Israel of God." " Gal. vi. 15, 16. 

i 2 



90 

And did not the same Apostle tell the Ephesians, " But 
ye have not so learned Christ," if so be that ye have 
heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is 
in Jesus!" Eph. iv. 20, 21. So that it appears, that 
the Apostle Paul thought it involved the danger of no 
fatal heresy, to denominate Him as a rule, that could 
be " learned," and that without any tendency " to di- 
vest him of his personality, and to convert him into a 
principle/' What does our keen discoverer of fatal 
heresies think of such expressions as these " I am the 
bread oi life." — "Jam the vine," — " / am the door" — 
" / am the way." — " As ye have received Christ, so 
walk in him" Joseph John does not say that these 
expressions tend " to divest Christ of his personality, 
and to convert him into a principle." And yet he 
must have a more than microscopic power of vision, 
that can discern the difference between a way to walk 
in, and a rule to be ruled by . But Joseph John is not 
inclined to admit that " the government shall be (wholly) 
upon his shoulder," he would limit it to " three impor- 
tant points." 

"Our author' ' next states that I M insinuate, that 
without any instruction whatsoever in Christianity, every 
creature under heaven may have the saving knowledge 
of the gospel of life and salvation through Jesus Christ." 
But my insinuation on this head applies solely to the 
instruction of man, which I deny to be necessary to that 
end, unless specially required by Him (i who teaches 
as never man taught." The Apostle declares expressly 
that -' the gospel is preached in every creature," and if 
that " preaching" is not " instruction" and such instruc- 
tion too, that to as many as receive it, it is " the power 






91 

of God unto salvation/' Joseph Gurney should have 
demonstrated it to have been otherwise, or else not thus 
have obliquely condemned the conclusion that naturally 
flows from the express ivords of Scripture. 

I dispute not the literal meaning of the word gospel, 
but I do dispute the limitation of that word to mere 
writings, however excellent those writings may be. 
Neither do I dispute that " the glad tidings, through 
which our Lord Jesus Christ brought life and immor- 
tality to light, were those of everlasting salvation through 
the incarnation and sacrifice of the Son of God.' 5 But 
it is not for worms, like us, " to limit the Holy One," 
and say, that the literal knowledge of that incarnation 
and sacrifice, is necessary to salvation, and that " the 
untutored aboriginal native of Patagonia or New Hol- 
land/' who has never heard the name of Jesus, (literally 
speaking) cannot have a knowledge that is saving ; for, 
whatever degree of knowledge may accompany the 
" glad tidings" that is preached in him, it is sufficient 
for me to know, confirmed as it is by Scripture, that 
glad tidings is preached in him, accompanied with a 
sufficient degree of knowledge, so as to leave him with- 
out excuse, if he neglects it. 

u Our author" next proceeds to say, that " one of 
the most delusive and dangerous ideas thrown out in 
many of the passages already quoted, is that the writings 
which are now, or may hereafter be composed, under a 
measure of the influence of the Spirit, are just as much 
Holy Scripture, as the books of the Old and New Tes- 
tament ; or rather as such parts of those books as this 
author may be pleased to allow to have been given by 
inspiration." 



92 

This is a specious and slanderous misrepresentation 
of my expressions. So far from setting up any private 
judgment, either of my own, or any other man's, the 
whole scope and intent of my writing has been to des- 
troy it, and recommend in its place, the counsel and 
direction of a higher power. Joseph John need not be 
jealous on my account, either for his own private judg- 
ment, or that of his ' ' eminent biblical critics of the 
last 150 years." I shall run no race of rivalry with 
them, in order to dethrone the standard of their own 
choice, for I trust I value my own unassisted judgment 
as little worth as I do their' s, and I assure him that is 
very little indeed. But if there is any writing now, or 
if there may be any hereafter " composed under a 
measure of the influence of the Spirit " what sort of 
Scripture will it be if not Holy. Is not all holy, how- 
ever small the measure, which proceeds from the Holy 
Spirit ? Are not his influences holy, and is not the 
effect of that influence, the same in kind as the influence 
itself? Can the degrees of more and less change its 
properties, so that a larger measure is holy, but a smaller 
measure not so ? Is not light as much light in reference 
to its essential nature, in one single ray, as in ten 
thousand ? — were not the early churches exhorted to 
holiness, and were not the disciples also commanded to 
" be perfect, even as your father in heaven is perfect,' ' 
yet to Christ alone " was given the Spirit without mea- 
sure." The Apostles and Evangelists, remarkably en- 
dowed as they were with heavenly gifts, and with 
power from on high, wrote only under " a measure of 
the influence of the Spirit ;" for although on one remark- 
able occasion, they "were all filled with the Holy 



93 

Ghost/' yet in Christ alone was the fulness of grace and 
truth. 

As to " our author's" pitiful attempt at wit in this 
part of his c< Strictures/ it is as pointless, as his insin- 
uations are unjust, and his arguments false and incon- 
clusive. " The Scripture," writes he, " which was 
given by inspiration, may, I presume, be some part of 
the Christian's Bible ; that which is so given, can be 
nothing else than the works of certain modern writers, 
such as Robert Barclay, William Penn, Samuel Fisher, 
&c, those other writings ' which have proceeded from 
the same source/ That which will be given, must be 
the additions to Holy Writ, which we ma}' expect from 
the hands of our children, or our grand children." Now 
what Joseph Gurney may expect from his children and 
grand children, I cannot tell, but if these " Strictures" 
afford us any clue in the matter, I should say that he 
could not reasonably expect very great things at their 
hands. But I would ask " our author," as he talks 
about audacity, as well as meekness, which of the 
two terms is appropriate here ; whether it is a meek 
and humble, or an audacious spirit, which presumes 
to pry so far into the councils of the Almighty, as 
to treat with ridicule the probability or even pos- 
sibility of the Holy Spirit ever again inspiring his 
anointed ones to declare his will by Holy Scripture 3 
as well as by Holy preachings ? Has Joseph Gurney 
the authority of the Holy Spirit, or the letter of 
Scripture, for this doctrine ? If neither, which I am 
persuaded he has not, who is it that is here " pleased to 
allow what has been given by inspiration/' to be Holy 
Scripture, but will " allow" no more ! It is not becom- 



94 

ing, at least in one who professes a belief in " imme- 
diate divine influence/' to treat so lightly the very thing 
itself. 

That many of the works of our early Friends, (and 
may be some of our later ones) were written under the 
immediate influence of the Holy Spirit, / hesitate not 
to declare. I believe those worthies were specially pre- 
pared for the work they had to perform, and that the 
evidence of divine commission abundantly accompanied 
their labours. Their writings present to us a high and 
holy example for our imitation, in the innocency of their 
lives, the godliness of their zeal, and the strength and 
purity of their faith. They present to us memorable 
and noble examples of fortitude under suffering, of 
patience in affliction, of hope, and joy, and victory in 
the midst of death. They abound with heavenly expe- 
riences, deep spiritual truths, sound lessons of morality, 
and animating incentives to trample the world under 
our feet, to despise alike its smiles and its frowns ; to 
reject our own ways, and wills, and works, and in the 
simplicity of little children to seek to have all brought 
into obedience to Christ, that He may reign, whose is 
" the kingdom, the power, and the glory, world without 
end." 



95 



CONTINUATION. 

As for " the authority of the Apostle Paul, aud that 
of Robert Barclay," being very much on a level, in my 
estimation, simply because one name immediately fol- 
lows the other in the same sentence, is but a very lame 
inference. Suppose that in the passage which has 
produced this important " Stricture," I erase the words 
"or any one else/' and supply their places, by those of, 
Joseph John Gurney ; which I most assuredly can do 
without viewing the authority of the latter name as 
"very much on a level," with either of the two pre - 
ceeding ones. The passage would then read, " and let 
me here inform the latter in answer to a query of his in 
a preceding page, that the authority of Robert Barclay, 
or Paul, or Joseph John Gurney, or ' even an angel 
from Heaven,' according to the principles of the So- 
ciety, could not subvert the truth of the everlasting 
gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. As the 
passage thus stands, and I have no objection to it, does 
it appear " sufficiently obvious" to " our author," that 
the authority of the Apostle Paul, and that of Robert 
Barclay, and of Joseph John Gurney, are " very much on a 
level in the view of this author !" I'll be bound he does 
not think so. But why? Why, because he must have 
seen, that throughout my writings, I have acknowledged 
the testimony of the Apostle to be next in authority to 
the immediate testimony of the Holy Spirit himself, and 
have paid a deference to that authority, beyond that of any 



96 

man, howsoever highly gifted, that has written since 
his time : that with respect to Robert Barclay, he was 
one of those eminent worthies, who were raised up by- 
God, to preach the same everlasting gospel that was 
preached by the Apostle, and although so large a mea- 
sure of the Spirit was not bestowed upon him, neverthe- 
less "the declarations," which God made through him, 
or through any of his anointed servants, must be equal 
in authority, if not in importance, "for the simplest and 
most powerful of all reasons ; namely that the authority 
of the declarations which God has made, is the authority 
of God himself :" that with respect to Joseph John 
Gurney, the estimation in which I hold his authority 
has been made equally apparent throughout this reply ; 
and although it must be acknowledged I have paid it 
but little deference, based as it is upon " eminent bib- 
lical critics," yet there is little fear from my placing his 
name consecutively with those of the Apostle Paul and 
Robert Barclay, that hewill be so far deluded, as to think 
it ' ' sufficiently obvious," that I view the authority of all 
three, "very much on a level." 

" But what is that Christ," queries the author of the 
k< Strictures," " on which they are both represented here 
as resting ? Not the Son of God manifested in the flesh, 
and therefore ' the offspring of Adam/ f born of 
blood,' and ' made of flesh and blood like ourselves,* 
(see Hebrew ii, 14 — 17,) but an inward principle born of 
God in the heart." How can he so represent ? How 
can he in the very face of the quotation, (if I may use 
the expression, say that I have represented the Apostle) 
Paul and Robert Barclay, ' c as resting upon an inward 
principle born of God in the heart" 1 There is not such a 



i 



combination of words throughout the whole of the 
work. Read — look at the passage again, permit me to 
have the advantage of ray own expressions, and then 
whatever construction the assurance of this writer 
may put upon them, I shall be able easily to 
remove ; the eye with which this passage has been read, 
cannot be mistaken, an eye spoken of by (i our author,"* 
in the sixth page of his " Strictures." — For whilst in one 
sentence he declares that the Apostle Paul and Robert 
Barclay " are represented as resting on an inward prin- 
ciple born of God in the heart," he merely puts it as a 
supposititious " meaning/' in his very next sentence, and 
manifesting his untruth farther, w T ith his own hand 
he reduces the very "meaning" he has himself given, 
to appearance — that is, he first of all declares that a 
thing is represented in a way that it is not represented, 
he next only supposes it to mean so, then that it only 
appears so, and then deciding upon what this appearance 
is. he interrogates, " shall we venture to give any 
countenance to such awful mischief?" What" artful 
mischief ?" Why, the awful mischief, that "our 
author's" distorted perception has conjured up ; an 
apparition that himself has raised with which to terrify 
w T eak minds ; a shadow T produced by the dark body 
of misrepresentation passing between truth and his 
readers. 

The passage from " The Truth Vindicated," which 
has been thus mangled by the rough hands of "our 
author/' may be thus denned, viz. in the first place it 
informs us that "according to the principles of the 
society," no authority can " subvert the truth of the 
everlasting Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 

K 



98 

Christ." In the next place it points to the distinction 
between His authority who had " the Spirit without 
measure" and their authority, who did but " know in 
part, and prophesy in part," It also shows in accord- 
ance with Scripture, that the latter were but instruments, 
whilst the power is "the incorruptible word of God;" 
and it then states in the following words upon what 
foundation the authority of these instruments rests, 
4 ' but the authority of Paul, as well as that of Barclay, 
and every other man past, present or to come, must rest 
upon ' Christ Jesus the rock of ages/ for other founda- 
tion can no man lay." This then, " Christ Jesus, the 
rock of ages," is what / have " represented" the autho- 
rity of Paul and Barclay " as resting on," and not 
upon "an inward principle born of God in the heart" 
It is a bare- faced misrepresentation, a perversion 
altogether unjustifiable of my w r ords; and the fas- 
tidious nicety of "our author," as to the language 
he would appropriate to " hirelings and deceivers," 
shall not protect his " Strictures" from those 
designations which the truth will warrant. It is 
not denied in "The Truth Vindicated," that Jesus 
Christ is come in the flesh ; but unless he is come in 
Spirit also, we can only have a traditional belief that he 
is come in the flesh, a belief resting on " eminent bibli- 
cal critics," and reserving his spiritual jurisdiction to 
" three important points." As for " genuine Hicksism," 
I have nothing to do with it. I have advocated no " sup- 
posed' 7 impressions made on my own mind by the Holy 
Spirit. I have not denied my Saviour in any one of 
"his gracious offices," either as appertains to his flesh, 
or Holy Spirit, in any portion of ' • The Truth Vindi- 



99 

cated ;" and if to deny any of these constitutes a distin- 
guished feature of Hicksism, I repudiate the charge 
with disgust and abhorrence, and declare it to be utterly 
untrue. / have not said that " the Lamb of God, is no 
otherwise slain than by man's refusing it," &c. ; and 
to infer by comparison, that / have, is false by insinua- 
tion, and covers the author of it with disgrace, and the 
cause he professes to advocate with suspicion. 

" Our author/' perhaps may complain, and cry out, 
%t what unseemly and violent language !" but I tell him, 
No, it is Christian plainness, calling sweet things sweet, 
and bitter things bitter. I praise not the charity of that 
man, who bestows an indirect eulogium upon the Christian 
meekness of his own spirit, and can yet charge another by 
implication with " hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, 
strife, and an evil eye," simply because he has desig- 
nated the opponents and vilitiers of truth, by those 
names which are assigned to them in Scripture, and 
which Scripture, except upon "three important points," 
our author confesses to be his " ultimate rule." It is 
clear how T ever that this important point forms another 
exception. It is no wrath, no envy, no strife to desig- 
nate actions by their right names, and men by their 
true characters ; for though the heart may glow with the 
warm and expansive beams of Christian love towards 
our fellow- creatures, and though a strong sense of the 
weakness of mere human nature ought constantly to 
remind us of the duty of mutual forbearance towards 
each other, and our necessary dependence upon Al- 
mighty aid for support, yet we are far from being called 
upon to shake hands with iniquity, and cover our 
mouths when those who profit and live by deception. 



100 

" the hirelings and deceivers, " lift up their voices with 
one accord against the truth. 

I shall not enter either upon a refutation or defence 
of the quotation from Elias Hicks, introduced by way 
of comparison by Joseph John Gurney. 1 think it may 
be safely left with the exhortation given forth in the 
Revelation. " He that hath ears to hear, let him hear 
what the Spirit saith unto the churches." What I find 
fault with is, that this sentence should be quoted by 
way of comparison with another sentence upon a totally 
different subject, in which neither similar words nor 
sentiments are expressed or implied, and that " our 
author" should go out of his way to give usa" Stric- 
ture" upon '■' Elias Hicks's words," instead of confining 
his "Strictures," in accordance with his title page, to 
"certain parts of an anonymous pamphlet, entitled 
' The Truth Vindicated.' " But the writer's object has 
been to identify, if possible, my sentiments with those 
of Elias Hicks, in order to bring " The Truth Vindi- 
cated" into disrepute. Like a subtle and sophisticated 
disputant, he has sought to obtain a victory, by enlisting 
the prejudices of his readers into his service, instead of 
appealing with the simplicity of truth to their hearts 
and understanding as becomes a manly and Christian 
advocate of the gospel. Whatever form of infidelity 
" dares to assume the name of Quakerism," no form 
has laid claim to it in the pages of " The Truth Vindi- 
cated," and this inferential charge against that work is 
thrown back upon the specious and wily founder of it, 
with all the consequences attached to its falsehood and 
injustice, with a sincere hope that he may be brought 
to a timely repentance, and unfeigned acknowledgment 



101 

of his error. For it must be manifest to those who 
have directed their unbiassed attention to this charge, 
that the artful comparison which the author of the 
'• Strictures" has instituted, is, for all his elegant meta- 
phor of " a mystic web" and "fertile seeds," no other 
itself than 

" A thread of candour with a web of wiles." 

It now only remains for me, before I bring forward 
the remaining quotations from our early Friends' writ- 
ings, to say a few words in reference to a quotation 
made in the "Strictures," from a work entitled " Anti- 
christ Unmasked," by George Whitehead. The quo- 
tation appears in the 10th page of the "Strictures,*" 
and is as follows, " We know none among us that call 
the Holy Scriptures a dead or carnal letter, nor do we 
own the words." 

Whether this is a fall and fair quotation, I do not 
know, never having that I remember seen the work. 
Unless therefore, I knew something of the succeeding 
and preceding parts of the discourse, I am not able to 
tell from this single sentence, whether these words are 
used in the same sense as they are in the passage in 
" The Truth Vindicated," for the refutation of which 
by contrast they are quoted. I have not designated the 
Scriptures in their character of Holy, as being a dead 
or carnal letter, but my expressions are that " the Bible 
of itself,'' that is, abstracted from the power of the 
Holy Spirit, " is a mere dead letter ;" and how they 
can be holy, without the accompanying presence of His 
Spirit, which alone can make them so, would be as 
difficult a task for Joseph John Gurney to prove, a? 
k2 



102 

that the ground whereon Moses pulled off his shoes 
was holy ground, before the immediate presence of the 
Almighty made it so. If Joseph John could discover 
the very spot upon which Moses then stood, he surely 
would not think it more holy, although more memorable, 
than the rest of the ground about him. To the " man 
of God," the Scriptures are not a dead letter, because 
he makes use of them in the living power and authority 
of Him from whose inspiration in the hearts of holy 
men, they have proceeded. 

And that this is the light in which those words were 
not owned by George Whitehead, and others, will be 
proved beyond a doubt by the extracts I shall give from 
the only two small works of his I have in my possession; 
and farther from the fact, that in one of these works, 
he expressly refers for a full exposition of his own 
sentiments in reference to the Scriptures, to Samuel 
Fisher's Rusticus, in which the terms " dead letter" are 
repeatedly employed in the sense in which they appear 
in " The Truth Vindicated ;" and the Rusticus itself, as 
may be seen by a reference to it, owes its origin in part, 
to a dispute between Friends and some hirelings, in which 
the principles of the Society were maintained and de- 
fended by Samuel Fisher, Robert Barclay, and George 
Whitehead himself. " Our author's" bow is too weak to 
propel this choice arrow to the mark. It will be seen 
to fall to the ground long, long before it reaches it. 
" So also George Fox," Francis Howgill, William 
Penn, Robert Barclay, and Samuel Fisher, do t(< own 
the words" in the sense in which they are used in ' ' The 
Truth Vindicated." 

I now proceed with my quotations to demonstrate 



103 

beyond the possibility of doubt, and beyond the reach 
of even a high professor's cavils, that I have not ad- 
vanced sentiments " utterly opposed to those which 
Friends have ahvays felt it to be their duty and privi- 
lege to uphold." 

George Fox and John Stubbs's Epistle to the 
Presbyterians and Independents, 1696. — " Doth not 
Scripture signify writing ? For all your high scholarships, 
you may go to the English schoolmaster, and it will tell you 
what it signifies ; what is all the writing in people's hearts ? Is 
paper and ink in people's hearts 1 . Come, do not cheat people, 
but confess truth ; you affirm Scripture to be the rule, but are 
found contrary to the rule. But what, is all the Scripture the 
rule — from Genesis to the Revelations, to walk by and practise ? 
or, what part of Scripture is the rule ? Are Herod's words, 
Pharaoh's words, Nebuchadnezzar's words, Judas' words, the 
Jews' words, Job's friends' words, the Devil's words, the offerings 
and the sacrifices, &c. ? Come, what part of Scriptureis your 
rule? Distinguish. For you say the Scripture is your rule. 
Is it all a rule for practice? Must we obey every tittle of it? 
for we own the Scripture more than you do, which holy men 
of God gave forth — Christ Jesus, and the Apostles, and Pro- 
phets ; and they made a distinction, but you make none> Do 
not go with your malice and envious minds, to possess the peo- 
ple, and say, that we disesteem the Scriptures, for we esteem 
Scripture more than you do, that have kept people under your 
teaching that they might pay you, and so make a trade of them." 

An Answer to some Cries among Ignorant People. 
William Bayley's Warning, Page 638. — " And as for the 
Scriptures, we own them in their place, as Christ Jesus said of 
them, and as the servants of God in ages past acknowledged and 
testified, to be a true declaration ; and leave it to the witness of 
God in you all, to consider and judge, whether they are all the 



104 

word or words of God, yea or nay, as by what followeth. First, 
In the Bible or Scriptures, are many words relating to divers 
matters, which we do not question the truth of the relation 
thereof. There are the words of God; and of Adam and Eve 
in the fall ; and of the Serpent that beguiled them : I hope you 
will not say, these are all the word or words of God ; but very- 
much to be distinguished, by them that have a right under- 
standing, as contradictory P 

" And there are the words of Cain (to God), who slew his bro- 
ther about sacrifice. 

" And the words of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of Moses, 
and the Prophets, Noah, Daniel, and Job — holy men. And 
there are also the words of Esau, the profane person, and the 
Egyptians, and Sodomites ; and of them that caused Daniel to 
be cast into the lions' den, for praying to his God. 

" And the words of David, Mordecai, and Esther; and of the 
Philistines that fought against Israel ; and of proud wicked 
Hainan, who sought the Jews' destruction, because Mordecai 
would not do him reverence. And the words of Ahab and 
Jezebel, that murdered Naboth for his vineyard ; and the words 
of Elisha to him whom he called his enemy, though a holy 
man. And there are the words of Saul, (who sought David to 
slay him) and of the witch he went to; and of the Priest's son, 
Pashur, chief governor, &c, who smote Jeremiah. Are all 
these the words of God? 

" And there are the words of the Devil concerning Job, who 
would have destroyed him, but confessed, God had made a 
hedge about him. And a relation of the reign of good kings, 
and also of many bad ones ; and of the false prophets and hire- 
lings, that sought for their gain from their quarter, and spoke 
lies to the people, whom God never sent, and so did not profit 
them at all who heard and believed them. 

" Secondly, and in the Scriptures are recorded the words and 
sayings, works and sufferings of Christ Jesus, (the true Prophet, 
of whom Moses wrote,) and the words of the Devil who tempted 
him, and of Judas that betrayed him, and of the Priests that 



105 

gave large money to the soldiers to tell lies, bow his disciples 
had stole him away, while they were asleep, &c. Sec. 

" Are all these the words of God ? much less the (Word) that 
was in the beginning, that liveth and abideth for ever. And in 
the Scriptures may be read the words of the persecutors, who 
strictly charged the Apostles to leave preaching in the name of 
Jesus, (the true Light and power of God) but Paul and Silas 
sung in the prison ; and they could not but speak that which 
they had seen and heard of Christ Jesus; and could not flee, 
like the hirelings, that leave the sheep when the wolf comes 
among them, for a icork of necessity w^as required of them, to 
turn the people from darkness to the light, from Satan's power 
to the power of God; and they had the word of reconciliation, 
and this word was in the beginning, by whom all things were 
made, before the Scriptures were ; of which the Scriptures tes- 
tify, and they are a true declaration, and this is our belief 
concerning them. 

" And so we make a true distinction between the report, and 
the thing or things reported of, as Isaiah did, who said, who hath 
believed our report ; and to whom is the arm of the Lord 
revealed ? 

" So, come to the light of Christ Jesus, which shines in your 
dark hearts; in which you may see yourselves, and your igno- 
rance, and vain thoughts, and hard speeches; and learn to put 
a difference between the precious and the vile in your own 
particulars, and then you will divide aright, between good men 
and wicked men, and their words and actions, as between 
light and darkness." 

Rusticus ad Academicos, Page 570. — " And as to the 
second classes of texts cited by thee J. O. in proof of the Scrip- 
ture being the only standing rule, in which texts all additions 
whatsoever to the written Word of God are expressly rejected. 
I answer, what though God doth reprove, condemn, threaten 
to plague and curse such as add to his Word, bring any other 
gospel than what Paul preached, make void his commands 



106 

by their traditions, enjoin men to seek not to such as peep and 
mutter, but to the Lord himself; and Paul would not have the 
Corinthians think of him and Apollos above what he writes of 
himself and him, as men only by whom as means they believed, 
which is the sum of the seven Scriptures by thee produced to 
that purpose ? What proof at all is there in all this such a 
way ? It is true enough there must be no adding to the Word, 
Gospel, Commandment, Testimony of God ; or alterings,or vary- 
ings, or detractings therefrom in a tittle; but is any of this 
intended of the outward writing, letter or Scripture which are 
not that Word, Gospel, Commandment, but only declare this and 
other things concerning it ? Is the Scripture that only set, 
firm, standing rule, that may neither be augmented nor dimin- 
ished on pain of plagues and cursing, as ye say it is ? Then 
tell me, first, how much Scripture or writing hath been added 
to the five books of Moses, since Deut. iv. 2, xii. 32, was 
written, wherein it is said, ye shall not add to the Word I com- 
mand you, neither shall ye dimmish from it ? And since that 
of Prov. xxx. 6, was written, where it is said, Add thou not 
unto his Word, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar? 
And since Isa. viii. 20, where it is said, To the law, and testi- 
mony ? and since that, Gal. i. 8, where it is said, Let him be 
accursed that brings another Gospel than we have preached, 
though we or an angel from heaven ? 

" 2. W T hether were the Prophets and Apostles, that have 
added so many books since those prohibitions, justly reprovea- 
ble and accursed as liars ? 

" 3. If ye say nay, they were not liars, nor to be reproved 
nor accursed, then tell me as to the measure, and bounds, and 
close of your canon, which ye suppose to be revelation, why he 
that by the same Spirit moving shall in writing reveal the same 
truths now, is accursed, reproved, plagued, for adding to the 
Word and Gospel upon the account of Johns sayings, Rev. 
xxii. 18 : "If any man shall add unto these things, God shall 
add unto him the plagues that are written in this book, v any more 
than John himself, who added his Scripture and Revelation 



107 

after Paul's epistle to the Galatians, or Paul, who added his 
Scripture after Isaiah's ; or Isaiah, and the other Prophets, who 
added theirs after Solomon's, or Solomon, that added his writ- 
ings after Moses his inhibition in Deuteronomy ? 

" 4. Believe it, that the Scripture is not that thing, nor stand- 
ing rule, to which no more must be added, and from which no 
neiv Scripture may be diminished, on pain of cursing and pla- 
gues ; but the word, doctrine, gospel, commandment, sun, truth 
told in it, to which cursed be he that adds another, or any new 
word, gospel, doctrine, &c. or detracts a tittle from that: and 
so John says, If any add to these things, and take away from 
the words of this book, God shall add plagues, and take away 
his part out of the book of life, and from the things written in 
this book ; meaning that particular writing he then had in hand ; 
not if any man shall write any more Scripture with so high a 
pretence as by the Revelation from the Spirit, or loose, or shut 
out any of the Scriptures that are already written by inspiration, 
from the canon ; for if he had meant so, then as brisk as ye are 
to breathe out threatenings and plagues, and curses to such as pre- 
tend to write anything by inspiration, revelation, or motion from 
the Holy Spirit since the days of the completing and closing 
of your canon (as you call it) which you count from John's 
writing his Revelation, though ye are far from adding any 
inspired Scripture to the Bible, but only such Scripture as is 
the fruit, figment, and imagination of your own hearts, which 
thou confessest to be the foundation of all other men that 
are not Apostles — not daring to pretend to the infallible gui- 
dance of the infallible Spirit in your ministry, yet you'll not 
escape the taking your names out of the book of life, and 
from the good things written in the Revelation, for your fault of 
taking away, detracting and diminishing from the Scriptures; 
for ye exclude from your canon very much of that inspired 
Scripture that was written, some of which is extant at this day 
too, as hath been shewed before.'' 

Page 476. — " Whereas indeed the letter is but the instrument 



108 

of the Light and Spirit, whereby the Light and Spirit do supremely 
and authoritatively, whatever they do by it at all, and can do 
without it even what sometimes they do with it, since it is in 
being and where it hath a being; for the Light tries, searches, 
shews, reveals, judges ; determines as well without the letter 
as with it, and did dive into the heart, where the letter never 
was, and direct there before the external literal directory was at 
all ; and yet use at its pleasure, the letter as its instrument and 
as a knife to kill, which knife yet as an instrument cannot 
quicken,but the letter doth not enter into the heart at all, and 
whatever it doth is in subserviency to the Light which is its 
author, whose instrument it is to use, but not the Light its 
instrument at all." 

Page 455. — " Besides, if the Spirit be the principle only, that 
men begin to believe and obey from, and not the rule accord- 
ing to which they go on in believing and obeying, then it seems 
with thee, Faith is to be begun, aud begotten, and born, by the 
Spirit, but kept, preserved, and nourished up to perfection by 
the letter, which is a doctrine of deep dotage and deceit ; for 
it is the Spirit of Christ, and the Light, that is both the Creator 
and Preserver, the Author and Finisher of the Faith, insomuch 
that I may truly, and do here justly cry out against you blind 
bewitching broachers, and your blind bewitched believers of 
it, as Paul on the Galatians ; I marvel that ye should be so sot- 
tishly departed and degenerated from the simplicity of the 
primitive gospel, so plainly declared in the very letter itself, 
which asserts the Light, Spirit, and Word within, to be both the 
Principle and the Rule. O ye foolish Prophets and foolish 
people, who hath bewitched you, that ye should be so 
reprobate as to the knowledge of the truth ? Are ye so foolish 
as to fancy that when men have once begun in the Spirit, they 
must be preserved in their faith, and regulated and made per- 
fect by their fleshly attendances to the letter ? that the uni- 
versities and ministers merely of it and not of the Spirit, are so 
lost about, and wrangling about, that to this day they are not 
agreed about the integrity of its text ? they that ministered the 



109 

Spirit among men at first, and were even by the very letter they 
wrote, ministers by whom men believed in the Light ; did they 
call them so much to the heeding or hearing of the letter them- 
selves wrote as to the hearing of the word of faith they preached 
and testified to both in their writings, and by word of mouth ? 
even that which before they wrote to them at all, was nigh in 
their heart, and in their mouth that they might do it? tell me, 
ye that desire to be under the teachings of the letter only, not 
the Light, do you not hear the letter telling of another rule 
besides itself, which itself doth only point to ? doth not the letter 
teach you the Spirit and Light is both the principle, and princi- 
pal means also, of discovery of right and wrong, as is shewed 
above ? doth the letter part the business of our obedience between 
itself and the Spirit? or say any where that the Spirit is the 
principle, but the letter itself the rule of our obedience? that the 
Spirit creates, and the letter preserves faith? saith it not that the 
Spirit is both ?." 

Page 459. — "And say I, that which is to-day transcribed, 
translated, interpreted so, and in such a sense by some, may 
through mis-transcription, mis-translation, mis-interpretation, 
be wrested as a nose of wax to-morrow by others into a clear con- 
trary sense, by transposition of Hebrew letters, which in shape 
and sound are alike, either in way of mistake among the most 
careful scribes in the world, or at the mere will and pleasure of 
critics who, ad libitum, may turn the text into twenty senses one 
after another, as seems good to them. It being so then with the 
letter that is so variable and flexible, and, contrary wise, the 
Light being fixed, firm, stable, without variation, as it is eternally 
and unchangeably the same, even yesterday, to-day, and for ever, 
as Christ is from whom it comes, one and the same in all, the 
foundation and witness of God, which stands sure and keeps its 
place in the consciences of men, let them go whither they 
will, testifying the same truth, as God's witness in all men, that 
it doth in any man, both de jure and de facto also, never con- 
senting to any evil, but condemning it all, in all men more or 
less." 

L 



no 

Page 484. — " The first of J. O's twelve texts, (ten of which 
never mean the Scripture at all,) viz. page 19, where I have 
shewn that the law of God, which is therefore said to be, a resti- 
tuens animam, restoring and converting the soul, is the Light the 
letter speaks of, and not the letter itself, which any but a blind 
man may see ; for what letter was written when David wrote 
this ? very little more than the books of Moses, which 
J. O. himself, and all men confess to be but the Old 
Testament, which is but the letter that killeth ; for if that out- 
ward letter of the Apostles and Evangelists were the New Testa- 
ment, as they call it, yet none of that was in being till above a 
thousand years after David, and the Old Testament that was in 
his days is now abolished ; neither it, nor the letter, nor outward 
statutes and judgments of it being given to any but Jacob or 
Israel after the flesh, as a type of the New Testament, or Covenant 
that is now made good to Israel after the Spirit/' 

Page 469. — " Again it is true, and not to be denied, but 
Apollos, an eloquent Jew, was from his being well versed therein 
before he came to ow T n the Light, mightyly in the Scriplure, and 
learned in the letter, so as mightily to confound the Gospel- 
gainsaying Jews thereby, when once he came to obey it himself, 
though yet there was a tradesman and his wife further grounded 
in the Gospel, and learned in the Light, than himself, who was 
beyond them in the letter, of whom he was not ashamed to 
stoop to be instructed in the way of God more perfectly; but 
how little this proves the Scripture to be the only standing 
rule, for which end J. O. cites it. He that is not blind may 
plainly see, that he who was so well skilled in the Scripture 
(had that been the only rule) could have instructed Aquila and 
Priscilla about the letter with which, suo illos jugulans gladio 
he slew the letter learned Jews, as it were with their own 
sword, yet was not so clear in his understanding of the tnith, 
way, gospel, Spirit, word, and Light of God (which is indeed 
the only standing unalterable RuLE/or ever, as it ever was) 
but that he had need to be regulated and rectified therein by 
such as in mere scriptural knoicledge were as inferior, as they 
were superior to him in spiritual understanding" 



Ill 

Page 338. — " We know the truth, and faith, and doctrine and 
word of God, which is bat one and the same in its nature, 
essence, being, and substance, whether written or not written of, 
whether clothed or not clothed in this or that outward acciden- 
tal form, whether displaying itself through the veil of the 
letter, or shewing itself more immediately in its naked native 
lustre, is to a tittle the same now that it ever was in sub- 
stance, though all the shadowy discoveries of it wax old and 
vanish, and as a vesture are folded up and changed, and pass 
away as a scroll that's rolled up, and grows out of date, when 
all letters and literal appearances of it shall be mouldered away. 
The word was before the letter was, and is, neither more nor 
less, what it was now the letter is, and will be no less than it 
was of old, or what it now is, as to its preservation in every 
point, when the letter shall be no more. 

"So what are all thy propositions about God's promise and 
providence, and love and care of his Church and word, to 
prove the entire preservation of every jot and tittle of an out- 
ward text, or an old uncertain transcript of what was by the 
holy men of God some thousands of years since written ? be- 
tween which Word and the writing, or Light and the letter, 
which leads only to it, there is no more proportion than is be- 
tween the lantern and the light, the glass window and the 
sun that shines through it ; or than there is between the ark 
and the Testament or Covenant, that for a while was kept in it. 
Dost not thou count the letter the ark, page 236 — Saying the 
Jews have now the letter, as sometimes they had the ark 
among the Philistines to their further ruin ? Yea, such propor- 
tion, say I, as the ark, that kept it, bore to the letter of the Old 
Testament that was laid up in it, the same doth the Old Testa- 
ment itself, the whole Tbi) ypctfifxa, or bare letter, or shadowy dis- 
pensation bear unto the Light, Word of God, or New Testa- 
ment, which is not a literal but a spiritual administration. V 

Page 241. — u Yea consider the naked literal aspect of the 
Holy Scriptures, not in its highest, not in its primitive, best, and 
purest, as at first given forth, but in its mere derivative, in its 



112 

lowest, meanest, and most altered and adulterated capacity, 
wherein it stands at this day, wrested and torn, and like 
a nose of wax twisted and twined into more than twice, if 
not ten or twenty times twenty several shapes, by men's untrue 
and tattered transcripts, and translations, (for, O that vast 
variety of lections, besides the infinity of senses, through 
men's misunderstandings, corrupt copyings, correctings of and 
commentings on it, &c, that the world is now loaded with, and 
led out into !) yet as mere a graven image as that is with ink 
and pen on paper, or skin of parchment (for 'tis so, though I 
reject their jeers, as improper and impious, by whom is it 
scoffed at, as Chartacea, Membrana, &c. for 'tis not so) and as 
dead a letter as it is (bear with me in that expression, J. O. 
till I come to show where thou so call est it as well as Papists 
and Quakers, whom thou quarrellest with for so calling it) and 
as very a nose of wax and Lesbian rule, and no certain stable 
standard as it is, for I know not why what they wickedly (be- 
cause tauntingly,) we may not honestly (since truly, seriously? 
and soberly) so call, which may so easily, so endlessly be al- 
tered by the wills of men, as thyself J. O. she west us in the 
20, 21, 22, 23, 24 pages of thy preface, the Scripture may, and 
made to stand which way any critick pleases) and as no autho- 
rity to us at all, as they (in their baseness and hatred of it, 
which I condemn,) do say it is of, as 'tis my continual exer- 
cise in works to do it, so do I here in plain words exalt the 
Scripture, which they so debase, and state it over all that their 
trash and aforesaid trumpery, even on the very top of all 
their long train of traditions, and over the archest title of triple 
crown : the proudest pinnacle of Peter's (now un-Peter-like,) 
painted temple, the highest point of that pompous, pious 
piteous pillar and ground of truth, the choicest chapter of Holy 
Church, and infallibly erring infallible chair." 

Page 637. — "This is that law and living word, and true 
testimony, even the light and word of God in the heart, a tes- 
timony that is said to be bound up from the outward Israel, 
which many have the outward Bible bound among them ; a 



113 

law that is said to be sealed up among Christ's disciples from 
the sight of the benighted seers, which such as seek to, seek to 
the Lord himself; and such as forsake, go from the fountain of 
the living water, to broken cisterns ; and such as leave for an 
outward letter, leave the living for the dead, and seek for the 
living Lord among the dead : These are the wells of salvation , 
out of which souls should draw the living water, which the 
Philistines in envy to the seed of Abraham will strive alway to 
stop, till the Lord make room for them to flow out to the full. 
These are that word, law, and testimony, and not the most 
original copies of the letter, as ye do emptily imagine, which 
whoso deprives of the Hebrew punctuation, by proving the 
novelty thereof, do, with Abimelech's servants, no less than 
stop the wells or fountains from whence ye should draw all 
your soul's refreshment." 

Page 561 . — " Neither deceive thyself so far, J . O . as to imagine 
it unwonted, wonderful, impossible matter that ever in these 
days men and women too, should, as of old they were, be moved,, 
and inspired, both to speak and write by the Holy Spirit." 

Page 691. — "To say nothing of how little true knowledge of 
God is in these nations that R. Baxter grants have the Gospel, 
meaning in an outward ministry, for else I know no nation 
that hath not some of that Light which is God's Gospel in them, 
any more than Paul did, who said, the Gospel is preached m 
every creature under heaven, Col. i. 2, 3. and Rom. x. Have 
they not all heard ? (i. e. the Gospel) yes verily, &c. The rea- 
son why all nations have so little as they all have, is, because 
they come not to the Light which is come unto them," 

Page 352. — "What people be those that looked on every 
tittle and letter in the Bible as their inheritance, which for the 
whole world they would not part with one tittle of? For my part, 
I look upon them as never the wiser for that, if they were as 
many millions of millions, as thou sayest there are millions of 
them : for my part, I love the Bible as much as I do any book 
in the world, and upon a true and just account, and in a right 
way honour it as much, as any man does, and as for the holy 
l2 



114 

truth that is declared in it, I have bought and paid so dear for 
that, no less than all that I had in the world, of what sort so- 
ever, lust, pleasure, honour, riches or righteousness of mine 
is gone for the sake of it, and to have all that ever I lost for it, 
I would not sell it again ; yet all the tittles and letters, accents 
and iota and points that are in all the Hebrew Bibles and 
Greek Testaments I have, and I have more than one of each 
sort, any one shall have of me for five pounds, and less money 
(and the books to boot) and that is less than the whole world ; 
and yet I shall hope to enjoy not a tittle the less of the word of 
truth that is therein told, if I sincerely attend to the Light the 
letter calls to, though I should never even look into an outward 
copy of the original text more while I liver 

Page 427. — "And lastly, thou sayest the penmen of the 
Scriptures were so tied up to the very individual words received 
by them, and put into them by the Holy Spirit, and were to 
deliver and write as all, so nothing but that, to every tittle 
that was so brought unto them, not altering nor adding of their 
own in their wisdom and understanding : it should seem then, 
according to your own principles, that God gave out by them 
what was sufficient to guide men (if outward writing or Scrip- 
ture was by him intended to be their rule) and if they them- 
selves might not amplify, nor add, nor enlarge, nor comment 
upon the word of God, manifested by them in the Scripture ? 
by the exercising of their rational faculties, but were to rest in so 
much as was revealed to them by the Spirit, and to others in 
writing by them : what need then is there of those infinite and 
endless odd additions that the doctors and divines have made 
from generation to generation to the Scripture, of their own 
voluminous inventions, interpretations, and as divided, as devised 
divinations, extravagant expositions, incomprehensible commen- 
taries, confused contradictions, canting one to another, and to 
the world to the confounding of it, with many more bumbles of 
their senses, meanings, opinions, thoughts, about the Bible, 
than it can contain, amounting in bulk perhaps to a thousand 
times more than the Bible comes to? And who gave you 



115 

text-men such a liberty and authority to take the text and talk 
on it in your wisdom, will, words, and understandings opening, 
amplifying, paraphrasing, prating out the plain truth as it there 
lies, so unprofitable to people in your own phrases, to your own 
outward profit, at your pleasure ? Did He that bounded and 
limited, and hedged in the writers, saying (according to thy 
sense) hitherto, thus far, shall ye manifest my mind in writing 
and no farther, lend you such a boundless latitude to prate out 
your own opinions, and turn you loose and unmuzzled in 
pratum vestrum ubi non est sepes ? Was not the mind of God 
in that Scripture given out by God himself full enough, and 
plain enough, at least in matters necessary to salvation, for the 
meanest capacity to understand when it is read to them, in the 
words wherein it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and the holy- 
penmen to write it out, without such a bottomless deal of ad- 
ding, amplifying and expounding, as your eccentric, academical, 
exorcists make about it ? When Paul wrote to Timothy, Titus, 
Philemon, and the churches, and John to the lady and Gaius, 
and Luke his story of what Christ and the Apostles said and 
did, were there need, much more absolute necessity, of a priest 
to be sent for in all haste to open what they meant to such as 
they sent their letters to in a tongue that they well understood ? 
And now the Scripture is translated into our own mother tongue 
in England, such as can read, may read and understand it ; 
and such as cannot read, may have it read to them at their own 
houses, there being one at least in every house almost, that can 
read now, even very children, if old people cannot; which 
being read, is tenfold more plain in such places as pertain 
necessarily to salvation, to every honest understanding, and plain- 
minded man that is willing to do the will of God there written 
of, than costly comments and manifold hampered handlings and 
more perplexitive unfoldings of it that are made by our school- 
men and university theological professors i so that what more 
need than of old, when the letter came newly forth, for a priest 
to be placed in eveiy parish for pay to darken the counsel of 
God in the Scriptures, by his words without knowledge, under 



116 

a pretence of opening it ; or if it were an opening, as it rather 
is a shutting of the kingdom of heaven against men (as our 
scribes, pharisees and hypocrites, like them of old, manage 
that matter, and use their keys of knowledge in another kind 
of manner than honest Peter ;) what need of hundreds a-year to 
be paid in parishes for the opening of one or two texts or verses 
in a week ? or rather the talking of some one text for a month, 
or a quarter of a year together, against the Light and Spirit 
from whence it was written ? If those that wrote it, might not 
meddle to say a little more, as J. O. says, in their wisdom, 
though they were as spiritually fluent and learned as national 
ministers are spiritually ignorant ; it would be more useful 
than now it is, through your miserable mangonizations of it, 
by your sneers on open places, if your wisdom would leave it 
as it is without making out your misty meanings on it, to poor 
men for so much money." 

Page 282. — " But now as to the epistle of Laodicea instanced 
in, T. D. was so hard of belief, and difficult to be persuaded 
that there was any such at all, that if one of Sandwich had not 
stood up and said he had the book wherein we asserted it to be 
printed, we should hardly have gained so much credit among 
the Clergy then present, (such pro and con they made about it, 
as to have been believed,) that there was such a thing in being ; so 
ignorant are they of some present parts of that Scripture they 
call their rule ; yet at last 'twas yielded such an one was extant." 

Page 283. — "Notwithstanding T. D/s advance in three 
motions against the truth of Paul's writing to Laodicea, yet 
they help him not; but for all his two strides and a jump, yet 
he leaps too short to reach the matter of truth he would repel by 
it, for quid ve?*bis opus est quum facta loquuntur ? there need 
no more words in proof on't ; the epistle of Paul to Laodicea is 
extant, and speaks out itself and its author whose it is, as well 
by the style and majesty of it, as by the superscription, being 
both translated and printed in English, as it was found, though 
not in your Testaments, yet in the oldest Bible that was printed 
at Worms : and also in a certain ancient manuscript of the New 



117 

Testament text, which I have seen since andean produce, written 
in Old English three hundred and forty years since, or above, 
before the art of printing came up here ; by which its evident 
that it was owned as canonical in the Church of England in 
those days, and was (however it came to be since left out,) 
bound up among its fellows. And howbeit, it be styled in our 
English translations of Col. iv 16, the epistle from Laodicea, 
besides the genuine sense of the Greek, which, as is shewed 
above, will much rather bear it to, than from Laodicea ; yet let 
it be read from, that nothing lessens the likelihood of its being 
Paul's ; for though he wrote it to Laodicea, yet if the Colossians 
would read it (as Paul bids them do,) as that the Laodiceans 
likewise should read what he wrote to the Colossians, they must 
read it in a copy from Laodicea whither it was sent, or else not 
at all, as the Laodiceans if they read that he wrote to the Colos- 
sians must have it first from Coloss, or at least a copy of it; for 
as for the Scriptures of the New Testament, quoth, J. O. who 
helps us in this, though he hinder himself another way by it. As 
to his canon's constitution out of the first of the original copies, 
"page 166, it doth not appear that the Avroypacpa of the several 
writers of it were ever gathered into one volume, there being now 
no one church to keep them for the rest," Col. iv. 16. Mark how 
he quotes the very place too we are upon, as if he owned Paul's 
to Laodicea, which if he do, he wounds himself to death in his 
arch-assertion, that not a tittle or iota of the inspired Scripture, 
as given out at first, is lost, but remaining every apex of it in 
the copies we now enjoy, since here's a whole epistle of Paul's 
lacking, as well as his first to Corinth and Ephesus, in which 
were many tittles and iotas. " 

George Fox's Journal, Page 7.— " The knowledge of thee 
in the Spirit is life ; but that knowledge which is fleshly works 
death. While there is this knowledge in the flesh, deceit and 
self will conform to any thing, and will say, yes, yes, to that it 
doth not know. The knowledge which the world hath, of what 
the prophets and apostles spake, is a fleshly knowledge ; and 



118 

the apostates from the life, in which the Prophets and Apostles 
were, have got their words, the Holy Scriptures, in a form, but 
not in the life nor Spirit that gave them forth, so they all lie in 
confusion ; and are making provision for the flesh, to fulfil the 
lusts thereof, but not to fulfil the law and command of Christ in 
his power and Spirit : for that, they say, they cannot do ; but 
to fulfil the lusts of the flesh, that they can do with delight. 

" My desires after the Lord grew stronger, and zeal in the 
pure knowledge of God and of Christ without the help of any 
man, book, or writing. For though I read the Scriptures that 
spake of Christ and of God, yet I knew him not but by revela- 
tion, as he who hath the key did open, and as the Father of life 
drew me to his Son by his Spirit. Then the Lord gently led me 
along, and let me see his love, which was endless and eternal, 
surpassing all the knowledge that men have in a natural state, 
or can get by history or books.' 7 

Page 10. — " Several things did I then see as the Lord opened 
them to me ; for he shewed me that which can live in his holy 
refining fire, and that can live to God under his law. He made 
me sensible how the law and the prophets were until John ; and 
how the least in the everlasting kingdom of God is greater than 
John. The pure and perfect law of God is over the flesh, to 
keep it and its works, which are not perfect, under, by the perfect 
law : and the law of God which is perfect, answers the perfect 
principle of God in every one. None knows the giver ofthislawbut 
the Spirit of God ; neither can any truly read it, or hear its voice, 
but by the Spirit of God. He that can receive it let him. John 
who was one of the greatest prophets that ever was born of a woman , 
bore witness to the light which Christ, the great heavenly pro- 
phet, hath enlightened every man that cometh into the world 
withal, that they might believe in it, become the children of light, 
and so have the light of life, and not come into condemnation. 
For the true belief stands in the light that condemns all evil ; 
and the devil, who is the prince of darkness and would draw out 
of the light into condemnation. They that walk in this light, 
come to the mountain of the house of God, established above 



119 

all mountains, and to God's teaching, who will teach them his 
ways. These things were opened to me in the light." 

Page 11. — " Therefore none can be ministers of Christ Jesus 
but in the eternal Spirit, which was before the Scriptures were 
given forth ; for if they have not his Spirit, they are none of his." 

Page 21 . — " I saw that the grace of God, which brings salva- 
tion, had appeared to all men, and that the manifestation of the 
Spirit of God was given to every man, to profit withal. 
These things I did not see by the help of man, nor by the 
letter, though they are written in the letter ; but I saw them in 
the light of the Lord Jesus Christ ; and by the immediate 
Spirit and power, as did the holy men of God by whom the 
Holy Scriptures were written. Yet I had no slight esteem of 
Holy Scriptures, they were very precious to me ; for I was in 
that spirit by which they were given forth ; and what the Lord 
opened in me, I afterwards found was agreeable to them. I 
could speak much of these things, and many volumes might be 
written ; but all would be too short to set forth the infinite love 
wisdom, and power of God, in preparing, fitting, and furnishing 
me for the service he had appointed me to ; letting me see the 
depth of Satan on the one hand, and opening to me, on the 
other hand, the divine mysteries of his own everlasting king- 
dom." 

"That which I was moved to declare, was this; that the 
Holy Scriptures were given forth by the Spirit of God, and all 
people must first come to the Spirit of God in themselves, by 
which they might know God and Christ, of whom the Prophets 
and Apostles learned ; and by the same Spirit know the Holy 
Scriptures ; for as the Spirit of God was in them that gave forth 
the Scriptures, so the same Spirit must be in all them that come 
to understand the Scriptures. By which Spirit they might have 
fellowship with the Father, with the Son, with the Scriptures, and 
with one another; and without this Spirit they can know neither 
God, Christ, nor the Scriptures, nor have a right fellowship one 
with another. I had no sooner spoken these words, but about 
half a dozen priests, that stood behind me, burst into a passion. 



120 

One of them, whose name was Jackus, amongst other things 
that he spake against the truth, said, that the Spirit and the 
letter were inseparable. I replied, then every one that hath the 
letter, hath the Spirit; they might buy the Spirit with the letter 
of the Scriptures." 

Page 264. — " From thence we came to Durham, where was 
a man come from London to set up a college to make ministers 
of Christ, as they said. I went with some others to reason with 
the man, and to let him see, that to teach men Hebrew, Greek, 
Latin, and the seven arts, which were all but the teachings of 
the natural man, was not the way to make them ministers of 
Christ. For the languages began at Babel ; and to the Greeks, 
that spoke Greek as their mother-tongue, the preaching of the 
cross of Christ was foolishness ; and to the Jews, that spoke 
Hebrew as their mother-tongue, Christ was a stumbling-block. 
The Romans who had the Latin, persecuted the Christians ; and 
Pilate, one of the Roman governors, set Hebrew, Greek, and 
Latin over Christ, when he crucified him. So he might see the 
many languages began at Babel, and they set them over Christ, 
the Word, when they crucified him. John the divine, who 
preached the word which was in the beginning, said, " that the 
beast and the whore have power over tongues and languages, 
and they are as waters." Thus, I told him, he might see the 
whore and the beast have power over the tongues, and the many 
languages which are in mystery — Babylon ; for they began at 
Babel, and the persecutors of Christ Jesus set them over him, 
when he was crucified by them ; but he is risen over them all, 
who was before them all. Now (said I to this man) dost thou 
think to make ministers of Christ, by these natural confused 
languages which sprung from Babel, are admired in Babylon, 
and set over Christ, the Life, by a persecutor ? Oh no V 

Page 346. — "From thence we returned to Redruth, and the 
next day to Truro, where we had a meeting. Next morning, 
some of the chief of the town desired to speak with me, amongst 
whom was colonel Rouse. I went and had a great deal of dis- 
course with them concerning the things of God . In their reasoning 



121 

they said, the gospel was the four books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, 
and John ; and they called it natural. I told them the gospel 
was the power of God, which was preached before Matthew 
Mark, Luke or John were written, and it was preached to every 
creature (of which a great part might never see nor hear of those 
four books) so that every creature was to obey the power of God ; 
for Christ, the spiritual man, would judge the world according 
to the gospel, that is, according to his invisible power. When 
they heard this, they could not gainsay : for the truth came over 
them. I directed them to their teacher, the grace of God, and 
shewed them the sufficiency of it, which would teach them how to 
live, and what to deny ; and being obeyed would bring them 
salvation. To that grace I recommend them." 

Page 471. — " At one time came three nonconformist priests 
and two lawyers to discourse with me ; and one of the priests 
undertook to prove, that the Scriptures are the only rule of life. 
After I had defeated his proof, I had a fit opportunity to open 
to them the right and proper use, service and excellency of the 
Scriptures ; and also to shew, that the Spirit of God, which was 
given to every one to profit withal, the grace of God which 
bringeth salvation, and which hath appeared to all men, and 
teacheth them that obey it, to deny ungodliness and worldly 
lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present 
world ; that this, I say, is the most fit, proper, and universal 
rule which God hath given to all mankind to rule, direct, 
govern, and order their lives by." 

Page 627. — " Christ said to the Jews, 6 Search the Scrip- 
tures, for in them ye think ye have eternal life ; and they are 
they which testify of me : and ye will not come to me that ye 
might have life.' Christ's sheep, that hear his voice, know and 
follow him; he gives unto them eternal life, and they shall not 
perish, neither shall any pluck them out of his hand. They 
shall not pluck Christ's sheep, to whom he hath given eternal 
life, out of his eternal hand. Christ said to Martha, ' I am the 
resurrection and the life ; he that believeth in me, though he 
were dead, (mark, though he were dead) yet shall he live ; and 

M 



122 

whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believes! 
thou this ? Martha said, Yea, Lord/ John xi. 25, 26. This is the 
true substantial belief, which they that believe shall not perish, 
but have everlasting life. John saith, ' This is the record, that 
God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son/ 
1 John v. 2. ' The life was manifested, and we have seen it, 
and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life which was 
with the Father, and was manifested unto us/ 1 John i. 2. So 
these were the believers that had eternal life in the Son of God, 
and shewed it unto others. c He that hath the Son hath life/ 
saith John, ' and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.' " 
A few hours before George Fox died he sent for some par- 
ticular friends, to whom he expressed his mind and desire for 
the spreading Friends' books, and truth thereby in the world.— 
George Fox's Journal. 

Divinity of Christ : An Answer to Thomas Danson's 
Synopsis of Quakerism, &c. George Whitehead, Page 45. 
— "And now touching the Scriptures being a declaration 
of the Word of God, but not the word, nor the only rule 
of faith and life; which T. D. sets down as an error, wherein 
he hath no less than accused the Scriptures themselves with 
being in error. For, first, we in calling them a true declaration, 
we call them what they call themselves, Luke i. as also that 
they are writings given forth by the holy men of God; and 
that which they call the Word, we do also : the Word was in the 
beginning with God, John i. and his name is called the Word 
of God, yet both the doctrinal part, and historical part of the 
Scripture, contained in the books of the Old and New Testa- 
ments, we own, and never slighted nor denied ; yet if we should 
look upon them as the only rule of faith and life, this would 
exclude the rule and guidance of the Spirit (for the only rule 
must be infallible, certain, incorruptible, obvious, &c.) which 
leads into all truth, as either not sufficient so to guide, or not 
to be owned as the rule of faith and obedience to God, &c. 
and this would be contrary to the testimonies of the holy men 
of God concerning it, who followed, and directed others to it, 



123 

and to walk in this Spirit ; and therein they knew their several 
attainments and measures, and herein was the rule of the new 
creature, who worshipped not in the oldness of the letter, but in 
the newness of the spirit. Rom. vii. 6. 2 Cor. x. 13, 14, 15. 
Phil. iii. 15,16. Gal. vi. 15,16." 

Francis Howgill, Page 309. — " Gross darkness is thy 
dwelling place, and out of thick darkness all this pitiful con- 
fusion cometh; the doctrine of life was communicated accord- 
ing to the will and mind of God, sometime by dream, sometime 
by vision, sometime by revelation to the patriarchs and be- 
lievers from Abel till Moses ; and by faith they were followers 
of Christ, and doubtless, they did communicate in their genera- 
tion those things that were manifested unto them by the Spirit, 
which was the then rule and guide to the feet of the upright in 
the way of peace before any Scripture was written ; and if the | 
Scripture be not necessary absolutely, thou hast said as much as 
we say: therefore we speak of a rule and a way which is abso- 
lutely necessary, without which no man can know the Father, or 
the Son, nor the way of peace, but by the Spirit of truth, which 
gave forth the words of truth, which may manifest and doth 
manifest itself as it will, when, where, and how it will; for it is 
unlimited, and it will not be limited by its own words, as to 
sound, but may speak words which it never spoke before ; as for 
instance, Paul by the Spirit said, the second Adam, the Lord 
from heaven, is a quickening Spirit, which none of the Scrip- 
tures before written speak in these very words ; and if the Spirit 
be not Spirit without the letter, then where the letter is wanting, 
the Spirit is wanting, and consequently, them that have the 
Scripture have the Spirit, which were no less than ignorance 
and darkness to say ; and what rule are they under, who have 
not the Spirit or no measure of it ? There is but the Spirit of 
truth and the spirit of error, and they that are not ruled by the 
Spirit of truth, they are ruled by the spirit of error, though 
they may have the words, to fight with and quarrel about without 
the life; but last of all, thou hast in plain words set the dead 



124 

letter before the living Spirit, and sayest, that the Spirit is no 
Spirit except it speak by the Scripture." 

Page 419. — " Largely I might speak of the hidden mystery 
as to demonstrate what the Gospel of Christ was and is, but in 
what I have already said, they that are any thing spiritual- 
minded will judge, that the Law and the Prophets, Matthew. 
Mark, Luke, and John, and the Epistles, were not the everlast- 
ing Gospel, but it was a thing beyond and above, and before 
any of these writings were, although they all in their several 
ages, bore testimony of it (viz.) the power of God, which 
condemns sin in the flesh, and mortifies the deeds thereof, and 
gives victory over it, and taketh up all that believe in it into 
one life, power and virtue, into pure peace, and heavenly con- 
tentment, and perfect satisfaction : so you who are calling the 
letter the Gospel, or the New Testament writing the Gos- 
pel, I would ask you a question also : when was there a time 
since the first hundred years after Christ, or in that time till now, 
that these words and writings have not been spoken and preached? 
bought and sold as a Gospel, not only in the church of Rome, 
but also among them that are separated from her, even until 
now : this hath been preached to nations, kingdoms, tongues, 
and people ; and if the writings be the everlasting Gospel, 
then how doth John say, or why did he so say, that the ever- 
lasting Gospel should go forth again, and be preached again 
after the apostacy, or to bring out of the apostacy ? But it 
clearly implies the word had been preached, and published ; 
and the temporary writings which were given forth at divers 
times had been preached up for Gospel these many hundred 
years, which many have received by tradition ; but the power 
of God, and the gift of God, by which and from which the 
ministers of Christ in all ages ministered, hath been wanting,, 
if not altogether lost, for the most part, among them that are 
called Christians ; then what is the quarrel betwixt you and 
the Romanists ? It is but in translation at the most, and 
while words, and translations, and versions, have been contended 
about, the everlasting Gospel hath been hid. 77 



125 

Page 409. — " Now mark this, they (the Apostles) preached 
not up the letter of the law, not that which was written in 
tables of stone : for the first priesthood that was ended, and 
the ministry of that, and the veil was over their hearts while 
Moses was read, and their ability stood not in the literal know- 
ledge, or in that which was written; but they were able 
ministers of the New Testament of the Spirit, and so all that 
did believe, both Jews and Gentiles, who received the word of 
faith, which icas nigh in the mouth and in the heart, Rom. 
x. 8, they grew up in the knowledge of God, and of his Holy 
Spirit, and great gifts grew amongst them, as of prophecy, of 
speaking with tongues, of interpretation, and there was diversity 
of gifts, and diversity of operations, yet all by the same Spirit, 
which the Apostles were made ministers of, and which they 
that did believe and receive, received gifts from it, and knew 
the operation of it, which wrought in them mightily to the 
throwing down the strong holds, 2 Cor. x. 4, and the princi- 
palities and powers of darkness, and to the translating and 
changing of them from darkiiess to light, and from Satan's 
power to the power of God, even into the kingdom of his 
dear Son, Col. i. 13." 

Page 528. — " I say many are of that mind, that things may 
be believed to be true, according to the manifestation of God's 
Spirit, though the Scriptures in express words doth not declare 
the same ; yet you bring in fabulous stories, which you call 
unwritten verity, that are to be believed, though never so 
repugnant unto the Scripture, and to the truth contained in it. 
This we cannot receive, neither believe ; and this will never be 
attributed by the Lord to unbelief, although you say so." 

Page 395. — "And know you this, that they that worship the 
Lord aright, worship him in spirit and in truth, and they who 
come to witness the new covenant, come to know the law of the 
Spirit of God, and the life revealed in their hearts, by which 
the sons of God are led into all truth, and they need not go 
back to the tables of stone, nor to literal precepts for a rule ; 
for their rule is within (to wit) the Spirit of God, which the 
M 2 



126 

Father hath promised to pour forth upon his sons and daughters, 
by the mouth of his prophets, and that they need not say, 
know the Lord, for all shall be taught of him, from the least to 
the greatest, who are come to the everlasting covenant, and to 
the blood of sprinkling, which purifies the heart, and sprinkleth 
the consciences, which speaks better things to all them that 
receive it, than the blood of Abel." 

Page 396. — " Until at last the eyes of many were opened 
by the Lord, who saw that eternal life was not to be found in 
any external, visible thing, and do know that all they who are 
exercising themselves after those things in the exactest and 
strictest manner cannot be made perfect as pertaining to the 
conscience ; and all these great talkers of the fame of Christ, 
and of his glory and power, miracles and works, and of his 
death, obedience and sufferings ; the bare report and sound of 
these things doth no good at all, to him who feels sin hath full 
power and dominion in his heart ; so that the life of Christ 
must be felt within, enjoyed and professed ivithin, and revealed 
in the light, or else he cannot stand justified in the sight of 
God, nor clear when he judgeth, neither can he find rest nor 
peace for his soul. So I am one who have found mercy and 
favour at the hand of the Lord, among many thousands, to be a 
witness of that life which was with the Father before the world 
began, which is now manifested in the hearts of thousands, of 
his people, destroying the works of the devil, and bringing in 
everlasting righteousness." 

Page 636. — "I cannot detract from the Scriptures, neither 
undervalue them, or disesteem them as uncertain, or of no use, 
or of little use ; but whatever themselves declare themselves to 
be, that I own them to be, to wit, the words of God, the words 
of Christ, the words of the holy Prophets and Patriarchs, and 
Apostles, who were endued with the Holy Ghost, and speak 
forth the Scriptures as they were moved thereby, in several 
ages, and several things, and unto several states and conditions, 
as they were led thereto by the Holy Spirit, and they are a 
certain declaration of things that were done and believed, and 



127 

practised by the Jews under the first covenant, and by the 
Apostles and primitive Christians in the new covenant, and 
contain many precious and holy precepts and commands, 
doctrines, examples, exhortations, admonitions, reproofs, and 
instructions, and are as lively examples and holy patterns for 
all the saints in light to follow, by which we are given to 
understand what faith,, what hope, what patience, what love, 
what mercy, what long-suffering, what consolation, what virtue, 
and what inheritance the saints in light were made partakers 
of, through faith in Christ Jesus : likewise what doctrines were 
held forth, and what practice they used in the primitive times, 
when they walked in the order of the gospel, and had fellowship 
with God the Father and the Son, and one with another in the 
light of the gospel, which is the power of God, through which 
they witnessed salvation and remission of sins, and published it 
unto others that they might believe' 7 

Page 652. — "I say, and I am riot alone, that Christ is the 
way to the Father, and the way to the kingdom, and the rule 
and means by which his church is governed, and he is the Law- 
giver and the Judge, and all judgment is committed to the Son, 
and it is he alone that propounds truth sufficiently : and they 
that are in him, are new creatures ; and that which is the new 
creature, rule, guide, and judge, is the rule, guide and judge 
of the church of God, and Christ is the author of faith, and it 
is nothing that avails any thing with God, but the new creature; 
and as many as walk according to this rule, peace is to them, 
Gal. iii. 16." 

Page 214. — " We who are come out of the apostacy, know 
what was before, and see what shall be after ; the everlasting 
gospel of the Son of God shall be preached again to them that 
dwell on the earth, the same was preached to Abraham, before 
either old or new testament was written ; the latter all sects since 
the apostacy call the Gospel, and so greatly manifest their igno- 
rance, for that were to make two Gospels, to call the Scriptures 
the Gospel, or that which is written, and they who so err in 
their judgments are yet among the smoke of the pit, and are yet 



128 

under antichrist's reign, and are ignorant of Him who is the 
saving health of the nations. " 

Page 234. — " The fourth particular which thou callestour 
tenet, is, that we deny the Scripture to be the word of God ; 
and thou hast brought many Scriptures to prove that they are, 
but they are as impertinent to the thing, as thy former about the 
steeple-house, or mass-house. Thou hast brought many Scrip- 
tures, Jer. xxxvii. 8, how they are called the words of the Lord ; 
who ever denied that ; but the Word spoke the words, and the 
Word is greater, 2 Tim. iii. 16: 'All Scripture is given by 
divine inspiration.' I deny that; some was spoken by the 
devil, and some by wicked men, and I hope thou wilt not call 
that divine inspiration. Vvhen perhaps thou wilt conclude, I 
deny the words of Paul to Timothy. I deny the word is, it is 
an addition of the translator, which word alters and varies in the 
true sense of that Scripture ; but all Scripture given by inspi- 
ration of God, is profitable for doctrine, &c. But knowest 
thou no distinction between Inspiration and Tradition ? you 
have it by Tradition, the Saints by Inspiration. It is a dead 
letter in itself, and as it is spoken from your mouths, who speak 
of it by Tradition ; but from them that were Inspired, the living 
Spirit uttered forth living words. But what is all this to prove 
the Scripture or writings to be the word of God V 9 . 

Page 269. — " The Scriptures are writings, which may be 
seen and read with a natural eye or ear, but that which the 
Scripture declares of, cannot be seen with a natural eye, neither 
heard with a natural ear. Knowest thou no difference betwixt 
a Creator and a creature ? Is not that which createth gearter than 
that which is created ? And was it not the Eternal Power that 
gave the words a being, or thou hadst never had them ? And 
were it not ignorance for any man to say that the creature were 
the Creator ? Judge in thyself, for thee to call that which is 
brought forth, by the name of that which brought it forth, is great 
ignorance ; and is it any derogation unto the creature to call it 
by ts own name ? But it is derogation to the Creator to call the 
creature by the Creator s name ; so for thee to call the writings 



129 

the power of God, or the gospel, or word, is to attribute that to the 
declaration which properly belongs to the thing declared of, 
which is far greater in magnitude, in glory and excellency, in 
power and virtue; insomuch that the apostle said, when he had 
spoken largely of the power of God, and of his unsearchable 
riches, he cried, O the height and the breadth and the length and 
the depth thereof was unspeakable, or could not be spoken, 
which was unsearchable, and past finding out ! The declaration 
or the Scripture may be enjoyed, and not the power of God, 
which is the gospel of Christ" 

Page 305. — •" Yet the Scripture is not so excluded by us as 
thou judgest, though we say the Spirit may lead and direct with 
it, or without it, yet not contrary to it ; for the Spirit doth, will, 
and may, take up what thing it pleaseth to manifest itself and its 
mind unto the creature ; and who art thou, and what art thou, 
anything but an Egyptian, that wouldst limit it and tie it to paper 
and ink, to words and syllables, sounded and written in divers 
tongues, languages, and characters?" 

Page 316. — " Thou sayest, the gospel is a constitution or effect, 
tempered of the grace of God, and of the blood of Christ. 

" Answer. The gospel thou knowest not, but buildest with 
thy untempered mortar, and unseasonable words; and what is 
the gospel an effect of ? it is not only an effect of an operation, 
but it is that which operates, and is the power of God, which 
will confound all this mud, and all these muddy traditions, 
which you mix with the Scriptures and call them gospel. " 

Page 260. — " This man talks like a heathen politician rather 
than a minister of Christ, who tells of an excellent plot of redemp- 
tion, for He who is the Redeemer, was with the Father, and was 
his light before the world began, which in due time was made 
manifest, by what means the Father pleased, who is that unli- 
mited Spirit, which cannot nor will not be confined to this or that 
thing ; for Moses was a believer, and a follower of Christ, and 
Christ was revealed to him, that through faith he saw him that 
is invisible, Heb. xi. 27. And then there was no Scripture, and 
the shepherds and the wise men of the east were directed by the 



130 

star ; and the star which they saw in the east went before 
them, till it came and stood over where the young child was, 
and when they saw the star they rejoiced with exceeding great 
joy, Mat. ii. 2, 9, 10. And here is no mention made of Scrip- 
ture ; so to confine the Lord to this or that way, to this or that 
form, to this or that appearance, as I. W. would do, is to limit 
the Holy One of Israel ; and the Scripture saith, as the living 
Father hath life in himself, so the Son hath also life in himself, to 
give to whomsoever he will, and the Scripture saith further ; none 
know God, nor the things of God, save by the Spirit of God ; so 
that this is a true saying, and worthy of acceptation, that eternal 
life can be found no where, hut where it is, and eternal life is in 
the Son of God ; and thou and the rest qf you professors^ who 
look for eternal life in the letter, you are seeking the living 
among the dead ; for the Scripture saith, he that hath the Son 
hath life, but not he that hath the Scripture hath life, for there 
are many which have the Scripture, the writings, or written 
words, and have not the Son, neiiher eternal life; for the Pha- 
risees had the words and the Scriptures, and never heard the 
voice of God at any time, neither had they the Word of God 
abiding in their hearts, and yet they had the Scripture and 
writings of Moses and the Prophets in their minds ; so that it 
is manifest, they had neither found God, Christ nor eternal life, 
notwithstanding they had Moses and the Prophets. 

" And yet I say untQ thee, we are not vilifying the Scriptures, 
as thou falsely judgest ; for if the Spirit of truth, through which 
God and the deep things of God are discovered, if it please to 
manifest eternal life, or anything that pertains thereunto, through 
the words which have been spoken btfore by itself, and it brings 
in those words again, and opens them in any believer's heart, 
and gives him to understand them, and the things of God through 
any of the words of the Scripture, this is not excluded; but to 
limit life or the Spirit to this or that, or the other thing, true 
believers dare not do ; for God, who is eternal life, manifested 
his mind to the creature, how, when, where, and by what he 
will; who art thou that wouldst limit him? and thou that 



131 

knowest Christ no other way than by the words without, thee 
knowest him not at all, no more than the Pharisees, who had 
the words, and yet were ignorant of the life. 71 

Page 274. — " And at last, when thou hast vilified and 
mocked Christ and his light, thou criest with the Jews, Away 
with this deluding light, and criest ,To the law, and to the testi- 
mony, and so in the drunken spirit reeleth and staggers, and 
knowest not what thou sayest. Didst thou not say a little before, 
that the law was light, and that which accuseth for sin, and 
convicteth of sin, and excuseth and bringeth peace to the obe- 
dient ? Is not this Jesus' testimony, or the testimony of Jesus ? 
And thou criest, Away, away with this as delusion ; and this 
is all the tune thou playest on thy bad stringed instrument : the 
letter is the word, and Scripture is the rule, the Scripture is the 
Gospel, and Scriptures the testimony, and Scripture is the trial 
of the Spirit, and thou hast tried Christ the true light that 
enlightens every man, and with thy false judgment hast con- 
demned him." 

William Penn, Page 302. — " So that then we ought, and 
do, by absolute force of truth, conclude, First, that the seed, 
which is Christ, was in all ages; with Abraham, with the 
Israelites, with the Prophets ; therefore he was as well before he 
came in that prepared body, as then and since. Secondly, yet 
it is confessed that he was not so clearly revealed, perfectly 
brought forth, and generally known before his coming, as then 
and since, but more darkly figured out by types and shadowy 
services ; which, though they cleansed not, saved not, redeemed 
not, yet did they shew forth a more hidden and spiritual 
substance, that was able to cleanse, save and redeem, and 
actually did, all that received it, and were truly subject to it, 
and that both from sin and death." 

Page 306. — "Though we believe the eternal power, life and 
light, which inhabited that Holy Person who was born at 
Bethlehem, was and is chiefly and eminently the Saviour, (for 
there is no Saviour besides me, saith God) yet we reverently 
confess the holy manhood was instrumental ly a Saviour, as 



132 

prepared and chosen for the work that Christ, the Word 
of God, had then to do in it; which was actually to the 
salvation of some then, and intentionally of the whole world 
then and in ages to come, suitable to that Scripture, ■ Lo, in the 
volume of the book it is written, I come to do thy will, O God ; 
a body hast thou prepared me,' Secondly, That as there was a 
necessity that "One should die for the people," so whoever 
then or since believed in him, had and have a seal, or confirma- 
tion, of the remission of their sins in his blood ; and that blood, 
alluding to the custom of the Jewish sacrifices, shall be an utter 
blotting out of former iniquities, carrying them as into a land of 
forge tfuln ess. This great assurance of remission from the 
wrath due upon the score of former offences, do all receive in 
the ratifying blood of Christ, who, repenting of their sins, 
believe and obey the holy light with which he hath lighted them. 
For Paul's being turned from darkness to the light in his heart, 
was one and the same with his believing in the Son of God, 
1 revealed in his heart/ " 

Vol. 2, Page 4. — " But besides their not being a general, I 
have several reasons to offer, why they cannot be the rule of 
faith and life, &c. If now the rule, then ever the rule ; but 
they were not ever the rule; and therefore they cannot now be 
the rule. That they were not ever the rule, is granted: but that 
they are not therefore now the rule, may be by some denied ; 
which I shall prove thus. If the faith of God's people in all 
ages be of one nature, then the rule but of one nature : but clear 
it is, Hebrew xi. the faith has been but of one nature. In 
short, if the holy ancients had faith before they had or wrote 
Scripture, they had a rule before they had or wrote Scripture ; 
for where faith is, there is a rule for that faith. And if the faith 
be of one nature, the rule is of one nature also. And since the 
faith is inward, spiritual, begotten of the immortal Word, in 
which is life, and that life the light of men, and that this word 
of life and light was the rule ; then no book, writing, or engra- 
ving on visible and perishable matter, can be the rule now. 

" Again ; such as the faith is, such must the rule be ; but the 
faith is, as before, inward and spiritual, which no mere book can 



133 

be. Secondly. If the Scriptures were the general rule, they 
must always have been a perfect rule, ever since they were 
a rule : but this is impossible, since they were many hundred 
years in writing, and are now imperfect also as to number ; 
how then are they the perfect rule ? 

" That they were not the perfect rule before they were written, 
must be granted : and that they were many hundred years in 
writing must also be allowed ; and that they are imperfect now 
as to number, I prove : 

" First. 6 Enoch's Prophecy/ is mentioned by Jude, but 
not extant in the Bible. ' The book of the Wars of the 
Lord/ Numb. xxi. 14. 'The Book of Jasher,' Josh. x. 13. 
2 Sam. i, 18. < The Book of Nathan/ 2 Chron, ix. 15. 'The 
Book of Shemaiah/ 2nd Chron. xii. 15. ' The Book of Jehu. r 
' The Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Laodiceans/ Colos. 
iv. 16. and several others mentioned in the Scriptures, not now 
extant. And lastly, Luke says that many took in hand to 
relate from eye-witnesses the things most surely believed, &c. 

" Secondly. Now it is taken for granted, that John wrote 
many years after Luke : some think Luke wrote before Mark, 
however, Matthew and Mark were not many, and to this day 
we see no more than those four in our Bibles ; and therefore 
many such writings are lost : and if lost, then the Scriptures, as 
aforesaid, are not perfect ; and if imperfect, how can they be the 
rule of faith, since the rule of faith must be perfect. 

" Thirdly. My third reason is this; the Scriptures, however 
useful to edification and comfort, seem not in their own nature 
and frame to have been compiled and delivered as the general 
rule and entire body of faith, but rather written upon particular 
occasions and emergencies. The doctrines are scattered through- 
out die Scriptures; insomuch that those societies, who have 
given forth verbal confessions of their faith, have been necessitated 
to toss them to and fro, to search here and search there, to lay 
down this or the other principle ; and then as like the original 
text as their apprehensions can render it : whereas, were it as 
plain and distinct as the nature of a rule requires, they needed 

N 



134 

only to have given their subscription for a confession. Besides, 
here they are proper, there metaphysical : in one place literally, 
in another mystically to be accepted : most times points are to 
be proved by comparing and weighing places coherent ; where 
to allude aptly, and not wrong the sense, is difficult, and re- 
quires a clear and certain discerning, notwithstanding the cla- 
mours upon us about infallibility. Now from all this, with 
abundance more that might be said, plain is it that the Scrip- 
tures are not plain but to the spiritual man : thus Peter said of 
Paul's writings that, ' in many things they were hard to be 
understood/ therefore not such a rule, which ought to be plain ; 
proper, and intelligible. 

" Fifth. Again, the Scripture cannot be the rule of faith, be- 
cause it cannot give faith; for faith is the < gift of God, which 
overcomes the world :' Eph. ii. 6. 1 John v. 4. neither of prac- 
tice, because it cannot distinguish of itself, in all cases, what 
ought to be practised, and what not : since it contains as well 
what ought not to be practised, as what ought. This was the 
case of Christ's disciples, who had no particular rule in the Old 
Testament writings for the abolishing of some part of the Old 
Testament religion: on the contrary, they might have pleaded 
for the perpetuity of it, because Christ said unto them, ' Do as 
they say that sit in Moses's chair/ more reasonably than many 
who make that a plea now-a-days for their invented worships. 
What then guided them in their declaring void and relinquish- 
ing those things ? For instance, God gave circumcision ' as a 
sign for ever/ Gen. xvii. 7. And Paul tells the Galatians, 
6 that if they be circumcised, ^Christ should profit them 
nothing/ Gal. v. 1, 2. was not this the Spirit of truth, that 
leads into all truth, that the Apostles made the judge and rule 
of their doctrine and practice ? So said James, and the assembly 
of the Apostles, when they told the believers, it ' seemed good 
to the Holy Ghost, and to us/ &c. Acts. xv. 28. 

" Sixth. How shall I be assured that these Scriptures came 
from God ? I am bound to try all things : if all things, then 
them among the rest. I would fain know what I must 



135 

try them with. With the Scriptures ? Then the Scriptures must 
be the rule of my examination and faith concerning themselves, 
which is improper. If with the Spirit that gave them forth, 
which searcheth the deep things of God (a measure of which is 
given to me to profit withal, then is it most congruous to call the 
Spirit by way of excellency, and not the Scriptures, the rule. 

" Seventh. If the Scriptures are the rule, they must be so in 
the original, or copies : if in the original, that is not extant, and so 
there would be no rule in being ; for the last of it that was extant, 
was the Evangelist John's history at Ephesus, not seen almost 
these thousand years. If the copies must be the rule, it were 
to be wished we knew which were the nighest to the original, 
there being above thirty in number. This is undetermined, and 
for ought we see, undeterminable. And that which farther con- 
firms what I say is, the variety of readings which we find 
amongst those copies, amounting to several thousands. And if 
the copies cannot, how can the translations be the rule, so vari- 
ous (if not differing) from the true sense of the copies in many 
things, and one from another? Besides I would fain know of those 
of our present age, who thus contend for the Scriptures being the 
general rule, &c. in opposition to the Spirit, upon what foot they 
received them into this place and authority : is it by tradition 
or revelation ? I mean, the internal testimony of the Spirit ; or 
the external award and determination of men ? If the former, 
they must unavoidably come over to us ; for then the Spirit will 
and must be both rule and judge: if the latter, I ask how are 
they assured that they are not miserably abused by carelessness 
or design ; since we see, that using the utmost diligence, both 
translation, transcription, and printing, are subject to numerous 
mistakes, and those sometimes very material, against which the 
Scripture of itself can make no fence ? Now sure it is, that 
some of the Scriptures taken in by one council for canonical, 
were rejected by another as apocryphal; and that which was 
left out by the former as apocryphal was taken in by the latter for 
canonical. Now visible it is, that they contradicted each other, 
and as true that they both erred, respecting the present belief: 



136 

for your canon and catalogue vary from theirs, and let me say, 
without offence, from any catalogue you can produce. Behold 
the labyrinth of uncertainties you run yourselves, by which the 
Holy Scriptures are truly discerned, relished, and distinguished 
from the inventions and abuses of men ! 

" Or tell me if the most considerable part of Scripture, be 
any more than the declared knowledge and experience of such 
as were come to a more improved state in the teachings of that 
light and Spirit; which is therefore given forth, that others 
loitering behind might be stirred up, and the more prevailed 
with to follow them, as they had followed the Lord in the light 
of his Spirit ? Certainly it can never be that Scripture should 
impeach the light of insufficiency, when that very Scripture is 
but the mind and teachings of the divine light in others, declared 
or recorded. Does the declaration jar with, or make weak, 
that from whence it came ? Or because of God's condescension 
for a time to external mediums, shall they turn the light and 
Spirit out of the office of rule and judge ? Or is it to lay down 
instituted religion, as some ignorantly talk, to press after that 
which was before, and ends those temporary things ? The law 
outward, as a rule, was but as Moses, till the Son came. ' The 
servant abideth not in the house for ever.' The written law 
held its place but till the inward arose in more glory and bright- 
ness ; or rather till people became more capable of being turned 
to it and living with, and in it. ' In those days ' saiththe Lord ? 
1 1 will write my law in their hearts, &c/ Isa. lxv. 18. They 
who say otherwise of Scripture, do pervert and abuse it ; there 
is nothing more clearly laid down in it from beginning to end, 
than the rule and reign of the Spirit, 6 My kingdom/ said 
Christ ( is not of this world/ John xviii. 36. Again, the king- 
dom of God is within. 6 1 will write my law in their hearts, and 
place my fear in their inward parts. All thy children shall be 
taught of the Lord, and in rightousness shall they be established. 
I will pour out of my Spirit on all flesh/ Joel ii. 28. 6 The 
grace of God that brings salvation hath appeared to all men, 
teaching, &e.' Titus ii. 11, 12. 



137 

" But this leads me to my eighth reason why the Scriptures 
cannot be the rule under the new covenant, &c. for admitting 
the law written by Moses were the rule (a rule, I grant it was,) 
to the Jew outward ; yet Christ the spiritual leader of a spirit- 
ual Israel, writeth his spiritual law in the heart ; as Moses the 
outward Israel's leader wrote the law upon tables of stone. 
This was God's promise, and that the privilege and blessing of 
the new covenant, that as the outward Jew had an outward law 
for a directory, the inward Jew should have an inward law for 
his directory : and as the outward Jew had an outward priest, 
at whose mouth he ought to seek the law ; so the Jew inward, and 
circumcision in spirit, has an inward and spiritual high -priest, 
whose lips preserve knowledge; at whose mouth he is to receive 
the law of life. And this is his rule, even he who is the ruler 
of his people Israel, who reigneth in righteousness, and of whose 
heavenly government there shall be no end. The king, ruler, 
judge, law-giver, high priest, law, rule, temple, are all spiritual ; 
so the Scriptures inform us ; c My kingdom,' said Christ, ' is 
not of this world.' Again, ( the kingdom of God is within. I 
will write my law in their hearts, and place my fear in their 
inward parts. They shall be all taught of me; and in right- 
eousness shall they be established. The tabernacle of God is 
with man; he will dwell with them. I will pour out of my 
Spirit upon all flesh. The grace of God hath appeared unto all 
men, teaching, &c. A measure of the Spirit is given to all 
men to profit withal. The inspiration of the Almighty giveth 
understanding. Whatsover may be known of God is manifest 
within. Walk in the Spirit. If ye walk in the light, &c. Come 
let us walk in the light of the Lord. And there needed neither 
sun nor moon to shine ; for the glory of God did lighten it, 
and the Lamb was the light thereof. As many as walk accord- 
ing to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the 
Israel of God, &c/ What rule ? Not that of the old legal crea- 
tion, which then passed away ; but the rule of the /easy?/ Kriuig, 
or new creation as it may be rendered, and as Drusius also 
doth interpret it ; which is the way of life Isaiah spoke of; c an 

n2 



138 

highway shall be there, and it shall be called the way of holi- 
ness ; the unclean shall not pass over it, and way-faring men, 
though fools, shall not err therein : there shall be no lion there, 
nor ravenous beast to go thereon, but the redeemed shall walk 
there :' which way, teacher, guide, rule, light, spirit, and holy 
unction, that directs and keeps in steady paths of truth, is Christ 
Jesus our Lord. 

" Doth our manifesting their faith concerning the Scriptures 
to be grounded upon their own imaginations, or human traditions, 
make void the Scriptures, or render them uncertain ? By no 
means ; for we would have them received upon the Spirit's tes- 
timony and evidence which gave them forth. And although 
we cannot allow them to be the rule of faith and life, under the 
dispensation of the Gospel, which is power and life itself, yet 
are they to be reverently read, believed and fulfilled under the 
Gospel. For notwithstanding the law written upon stone was 
not Paul's rule, after the Son of God was revealed in him ; yet 
the Son of God taught Paul to fulfil the righteouness declared 
by that law. If it be to deny and reject, yea to vilify the Scrip- 
ture, because we cannot allow it to be a rule, &c. Paul then 
may be said to deny, reject, and vilify the written law, at what 
time the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus became his 
rule. There is a great difference between asserting that the 
Spirit is the rule, and casting away and vilifying of Scripture. 

u A rule, and the rule, are two things. By the rule of faith 
and practice, I understand the living, spiritual, immediate, 
omnipresent, discovering, ordering, Spirit of God: and by a 
rule, I apprehend some instrument, by and through which this 
great and universal rule may convey its directions. Such a 
subordinate, secondary, and declaratory rule, we never said 
several parts of Scripture were not : yet we confess the reason 
of our obedience is not merely because they are there written 
(for that were legal) but because they are the eternal precepts of 
the Spirit in men's consciences there repeated and declared. It is 
the testimony of the Spirit, which is the true rule for believing 
and understanding of the Scripture; therefore not the Scripture, 



139 

the Spirit of truth, must be the rule for our believing and un 
derstanding them. 

Page 16. — " Now that which was their rule can guide us into 
the same experiences ; nor are they to be rightly known before 
experienced : ' If any man will do his will, he shall know of 
the doctrine/ saith Christ. I read the history of such things ; 
this saves not : neither can the history be the rule leading into 
the mystery. That belongs only to the Spirit, that searcheth 
out the deep things of God. Consequently the Spirit, and not 
the Scripture, is the rule for so believing and living. 

" Objection. But if God had not revealed those things that 
are in Scripture, by it to us, how could they have been known 
by us? 

"Answer. They were known by the light and Spirit of 
Christ before they were written ; for from being written they 
are called Scripture. 

" Therefore it is said, that the Prophets searched diligently 
: what, and what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ, that was 
in them, did signify, when it testified beforehand of the suffer- 
ings of Christ.' 1 Peter i. 11. Nor are they ever the more 
revealed to the blind and dark mind because they are written . 
The mysteries of regeneration are as puzzling to natural wit and 
earthly wisdom, as before. Therefore well said Epiphanius, 
only to the children of the Holy Ghost, all the holy Scriptures 
are plain and easy. Men's going to hammer out principles 
without this infallible guide and rule, hath been the cause of 
that great confusion that is over mankind about religion to this 
very day. Light does not reveal every circumstance of history 
to each individual that hath already an account thereof, that 
therefore it could not, is unreasonable. Were the history of 
the transactions of Christ and his followers wanting (as, before 
Moses, was that of Adam and his posterity,) and that the Lord 
saw it needful to acquaint mankind therewith, no doubt but 
the light and Spirit which revealed the account of the creation, 
above two thousand years after to Moses, and foretold several 
hundred years many of those transactions of Christ by the Pro- 



140 

phets, would also have supplied that want : but inasmuch as 
an account is extant, and therefore not needed, that objection 
is vain. 

" Again, it does not follow, because every man has a mea- 
sure of light to inform and rule him, that therefore he must 
needs know all which that light knows, or is able to reveal to 
him. I return that argument thus upon our adversaries : they 
say, ' they have the Spirit of God :' then they know all that the 
Spirit of God knows, or can reveal to them. If the latter be ab- 
surd, then the former. Again, say they, ' the light within did 
not reveal Christ to the Gentiles, and that Christ should be 
born of a virgin/ &c. therefore insufficient. I return upon 
them thus : The Spirit of God, given to the children of Israel, 
Neh. ix. 20. did not acquaint them that Christ should be born 
of a virgin, nor much more of his life and bodily transactions; 
therefore the Spirit of God was insufficient. The like may be 
concluded against the Spirit in the Prophets : for it is manifest 
from 1 Pet. i. 10, 11. that the Spirit had not revealed to 
all the Prophets the time of Christ's appearance and sufferings. 
Was the Spirit therefore an insufficient rule to them ? but that 
which falls heaviest upon our opposers, is this. That the 
Scriptures, by their own argument, are a most imperfect ac- 
count themselves of what was done, not relating the hundredth 
part of things ; therefore as insufficient in not relating what is 
behind, as they would weakly render the light or Spirit in not 
revealing to every individual those things which are already 
past. Nay, they may as well infer insufficiency to the Spirit, 
or the light within, in that it does not shew all that shall be to 
the end of the world, which in their proper seasons there 
will be a necessity to know, as to reflect insufficiency upon it, 
&c. because it did not foretel things that are now past unto for- 
mer ages, or needlessly reveal them over again to us in this age. 
Neither is history, nor can it be, the rule of that faith and life 
we speak of, which are so absolutely necessary to salvation, 
which is the faith that God, and not history, gives; and that 
works not by history, but by love, and overcomes the world ; 



141 

by which millions of historical believers are overcome, and 
wallow in the spirit and practice of. And the rule must be 
answerable to the nature and workings of the faith : the same 
in point of practice, which is duty done. Now history, though 
it inform me of others' actions, yet it does not follow that it 
is the rule of duty to me, since it may relate to actions not imi- 
table, as in the case of Adam and Eve in several respects, and 
Christ's being born of a virgin, dying for the sins of the world, 
&c. wherefore this cannot be the rule of duty. The like may 
be said of the Jewish story, that was the particular concern and 
transaction of that people." 

Page 22. — " How can Scripture be the judge of controversy, 
since the question most times arises about the meaning of Scrip- 
ture? Is there any place tells us, without interpretation, whether 
the Socinian or Trinitarian be in the right, in their differing 
apprehensions of the ' three that bear record,' &c. also the 
Homonssian and Arian, about Christ's divinity ; or the Papists 
or Protestants about tran substantiation ? If then things are left 
undefined and undetermined, I mean literally and expressly, in 
the Scripture, and that the question arises about the sense of 
words, doth the Scripture determine which of those interpre- 
ters hits the mark ? As this is not reasonable to think, so must 
it be acknowledged, that if interpretation decide the matter in 
controversy, then not the Scripture, but the interpreter must be 
the judge. Now this interpreter must either interpret by his 
own mere wisdom or spirit, called by the Apostle, 1 Cor. ii. 11. 
' The spirit of a man,' who, by weighing the text, consulting 
the intent of the writer, comparing places together, gives the 
judgment which the Scripture does not give of itself; or from 
the Spirit of God, ' which gives understanding,' as Job. xxxii. 8. 
and as the same Apostle saith, in the same place, ' searcheth 
the deep things of God/ If the first, then a fallible ; if the 
last, then an infallible judge. I would fain know, whether it 
was the Scripture, or the Holy Ghost, that presided among the 
Apostles when they were come together, Acts xv. when they 
gaid, l It seemeth good to the Holy Ghost and to us,' &c, If 



142 

the Holy Ghost then, give us a plain Scripture to prove we are 
to have another judge now : if that cannot be done, then we 
must have the same, and consequently an infallible judge, 
viz, the Spirit of truth, which leads Christians into all truth, 
and is given of God, by Christ, for that very end." 

The Christian Quaker and His Testimony Stated and 
Vindicated. William Penn, Vol. I. Page 300. — " I have 
two short arguments farther to prove what I believe and assert 
as to the spirituality of the true seed, and a clearer overthrow it 
is to the opinion of our adversaries concerning the true Christ. 
First, every thing begets its like : what is simply natural pro- 
duces not a spiritual being : material things bring not forth 
things that are immaterial. Now, because the nature, or image, 
begotten in the hearts of true believers is spiritual, it will follow, 
that the seed, which so begets and brings forth that birth, must 
be the same in nature with that which is begotten; therefore 
spiritual : then Christ's body, or what he had from the virgin, 
strictly considered as such, was not the seed. 

a Secondly, It is clear from hence : the serpent is a spirit. 
Now nothing bruises the head of the serpent in man, but some- 
thing that is also internal and spiritual, as the serpent is, But 
if the body of Christ were only the seed, then would he not 
bruise the serpent's head in all, because the body of Christ is 
not so much as in any one (though too many have weakly con- 
cluded it upon us, from a perversion or mistake of our doctrine 
of Christ in man, by his light and Spirit); and consequently 
the seed of the promise is an holy and spiritual principle of 
Light, life, and power, which being received into the heart, 
bruiseth the serpent's head. And because the seed, (which in 
this sense cannot be that body) is Christ — as testify the Scrip- 
tures, the seed is one, and that seed Christ, and Christ God 
over all, blessed for ever — we do conclude that Christ was, and 
is the divine Word of Light and life, that was in the beginning 
with God, and was and is God over all, blessed for ever. 

" And that this may yet more evidently appear, let it but be 
seriously weighed, that antecedent to that visible appearance. 



143 

the seed bruised, in good measure, the serpent's head, in the 
holy men and women of all generations ; otherwise they had 
not been holy, but serpentine and wicked. And if the seed 
was before, and that seed be Christ, (because there is but one 
Christ, as well as but one seed) it doth clearly follow that 
Christ was Christ before that outward appearance ; and conse- 
quently it could but be a more excellent and free manifestation 
of his truth, righteousness, salvation, wisdom, power, glory and 
dominion ; as indeed it was." 

Page 305. — u This it was which gave the manhood the 
understanding it had, and fitted it for so great an embassy ; by 
whose power alone it fasted, prayed, preached, cast out devils, 
wrought miracles, lived that most unblemished life, patiently 
suffered death, was raised for an holy confirmation, maugre all 
the military opposition of the Jews : and this divine power it 
was which accompanied the ministry of his followers, rendering 
it efficacious to conviction and conversion : so that the invisible, 
spiritual and divine life, principle or nature, was the root and 
fountain of all which is sometimes ascribed in Scripture to the 
body, by that common figure, or way of speaking amongst 
men, the thing containing, which was the body, for the thing 
contained, which was the eternal power, wisdom, life, &c. Not 
that we should rob irreverently the holy body of whatsoever ac- 
knowledgment is justly due, nor yet separate that which God 
hath joined : though I confess, with holy fear, I dare not 
attribute that to an external prepared being, which is the natural 
proper, and only work of the Divine Light and life to operate 
and effect. But certainly, if some men in Scripture are entitled 
saviours, because, of the contribution of their trials, travails and 
labours towards the salvation of mankind, of much more right 
is that honour ascribed to him 'who had the Spirit without 
measure :' for I do freely acknowledge the holy manhood to 
have been, in some sense, a co-worker and partner with the 
Divine Life in those trials, weights, sufferings, and travails for 
mankind. Yet, as it was the Divine Power that gave them 
weight in that great work, so was it the divine life in him which 



144 

made that holy manhood what it was; and therefore ought we, 
chiefly, to appropriate the salvation to Christ as the Word God, 
and to the holy manhood but secondly and instrumentally; I 
mean, as it was a chosen instrument or vessel, in and by which 
God declared the blessed glad tidings of love, and his message 
of reconciliation to the world ; in which he gave the most 
heavenly example of purity, and through whose whole life, 
doctrine, and death, did shine forth the clearest evidences of 
truth, goodness, mercy, patience, deep travail for the world 
self-denial, holiness, and triumphant martyrdom/' 



l > 



Meditations and Experiences, by William Shewen. — 
a For I testify, that this law of the Spirit of life within, was 
man's rule, whereby he walked innocently and uprightly, before 
transgression entered, and before outward characters were in- 
vented, or before any outward law was written, or engraved on 
tables of stone. To this again are many called, and many are 
coming, and come ; and for ever blessed are those that walk 
therein, and are ruled thereby. The true knowledge of Jesus 
Christ is very precious ; to know him as he was before Abra- 
ham was, and to know the knowledge of him after the flesh 
pass away. This rests upon my spirit to testify, that none can 
enjoy true blessedness and spiritual consolation to their souls, 
farther than they have a testimony in themselves, that they walk 
in the precious everlasting Light that now shineth. To this 
Light our minds were at first turned, in which God dwells, 
and in which the worship in spirit and truth is learned and 
performed in this age, as in ages past. The way is and hath 
been throughout all generations, one, and it is a plain pathway ; 
the wayfaring man, though a fool, cannot err in it. Friends 
are witnesses, and many could seal it with their lives, that there 
is no other way nor means appointed of God to come to sit 
down in the kingdom of heaven, or to attain everlasting salva- 
tion, but by believing in the power of God, in the Light of 
Christ within, to which our minds have been directed. All 
the teaching of men and books in the world, are but dross and 



145 

dung in comparison of this Divine Teacher, the Light, Spirit, 
and grace of God within. This was man's teacher and guide 
before books were written; before any outward law was writ- 
ten ; and this I testify, in the Word of the Lord, that teachings 
of all men, books, and writings, which tend to divert the mind 
of mankind from this Divine Teacher within, are vain and 
unprofitable, and proceed from that wisdom which is earthly, 
sensual, and devilish ; and all that lend an ear unto it, are capti- 
vated in the mystery of iniquity : ever learning, and never able 
to come to the knowledge of the truth which makes free, so 
long as they abide under such teachers. If this be not witnes- 
sed and enjoyed, all profession is vain, all knowledge is vain, 
all religion and talk of Christianity is vain, and of no worth ; for 
it is he that believes that Christ is come in the flesh, -and that 
demonstrates the livingness of his faith by the works thereof, 
that is of God, and God dwelletb in him, and he in God. This 
is more than a bare profession, or verbal confession, according to 
the testimony of John the divine, in his first epistle, chapter iv." 

Coxcernixg the Scriptures. R. Barclay. Page 29o 
— u For as we freely acknowledge, that their authority doth not 
depend upon the approbation or canons of any church or assem- 
bly; so neither can we subject them to the fallen, corrupt, and 
defiled reason of man : and therein as we do freely agree with 
the protes'.ants against the error of the Romanists, so on the other 
hand we cannot go the length of such protestants, as make then- 
authority to depend upon any virtue or power, that is in the 
writings themselves ; but we desire to ascribe ail to that Spirit 
from which they proceeded. 

Page 297. — " By all which it appeareth, how necessary ii is, 
to seek the certainty of the Scriptures from the Spirit ; ant no 
where else, the infinite j anglings and endless contests of those 
that seek their authority elsewhere, do witness to the truth 
hereof. 

"For the ancients themselves, even of the first centuries were 
not agreed among themselves concerning them; while some 

o 



146 

of them rejected books which we approve, and others of them 
approved those which some of us reject. It is not unknown to 
such as are in the least acquainted with antiquity, what great 
contests are concerning the second Epistle of Peter, that of 
James, the second and third of John, and the Revelation, 
which many, even very ancient, deny to have been written by 
the beloved disciple and brother of James, but by auother of 
that name. What should then become of Christians, if they had 
not received that Spirit, and those spiritual senses by which they 
know how to discern the true from the false ? It is the privilege 
of Christs' sheep indeed, that they hear his voice, and refuse 
that of a stranger : which privilege being taken away, we are 
left a prey to all manner of wolves. 

c< Though then we do acknowledge the Scriptures to be a very 
heavenly and divine writing, the use of them to be very com- 
fortable and necessary to the Church of Christ, and that we also 
admire and give praise to the Lord for his wonderful providence 
in preserving these writings so pure and uncorrupted, as we have 
them, through so long a night of apostacy, to be a testimony for 
his truth against the wickedness and abominations even of those, 
whom he made instrumental in preserving them ; so that they 
have kept them to be a witness against themselves, yet we may 
not call them the principal fountain of all truth and know- 
ledge, nor yet the first adequate rule of faith and manners ; 
because the principal fountain of truth must be the truth itself, 
(i. e.) that whose certainty and authority depends not upon ano- 
ther. When we doubt of the streams of any river or flood, 
we recur to the fountain itself, and having found it, there we 
rest; we can go no further, because there it springs out of the 
bowels of the earth, which are inscrutable; even so the writings 
and sayings of all men we must bring to the Word of God, I 
mean, the eternal Word; and if they agree thereto, we stand 
there, for this Word always proceedeth, and doth eternally proceed 
from God, in and by which the unsearchable wisdom of God 
and unsearchable counsel and will conceived in the heart of 
God is revealed unto us. That then the Scripture is not the 



147 

principal ground of faith and knowledge, as it appears, by what 
is above spoken; so it is provided in the latter part of the pro- 
position, which being reduced to an argument, runs thus : that, 
the certainty and authority whereof depends upon another, and 
which is received as truth because of its proceeding from ano- 
ther ; is not to be accounted the principal ground and origin of 
all truth and knowledge; but the Scripture's authority and cer- 
tainty depends upon the Spirit, by which they were dictated ; 
and the reason, w T hy they were received as truth is, because they 
proceeded from the Spirit, therefore they are not the principal 
ground of truth. 

" But besides these, w 7 hich are before mentioned, herein doth 
the Law and the Gospel differ : In that the Law being outwardly 
written, brings under condemnation, but hath not life in it to 
save ; whereas the Gospel, as it declares and makes manifest the 
evil, so it being an inward powerful thing, also gives power to 
obey, and delivers from the evil, hence it is called EvavyiXwv, 
which is glad tidings. The law or letter, which is without us, 
kills ; but the Gospel, which is the inward spiritual law, gives 
life, for it consists not so much in words, as in virtue. Where- 
fore such as come to know it, and be acquainted with it, come 
to feel greater power over their iniquities, than all outward laws, 
or rules can give them. Hence the apostle concludes, Rom. vi, 
14. ' Sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not 
under the law, but under grace : this grace then, that is inward, 
and not an outward law, is to be the rule of Christians.' 
From what is above said, I argue thus : the principal rule of 
Christians under the Gospel is not an outward letter, nor law 
outwardly written and delivered, but an inward spiritual law 
engraven in the heart, the law of the Spirit of life, the Word, that 
is nigh in the heart and in the mouth; but the letter of the 
Scripture is outward, of itself a dead thing, a meer declaration 
of good things, but not the things themselves." 

Truth Cleared of Calumnies, by Robert Barclay, 
Page 16. — " And as to thy question, what way shall the delu- 
sion be tried, if you neglect the word of God, and look only 



148 

within ? Answer, As for the Word of God, nor yet the Scriptures* 
testimony, we neglect not ; but what way, thinkestthou, shall the 
delusion be tried, if you neglect the Spirit within, and look only 
upon the letter, and words without you ? If the delusion be 
strong in the heart, will it not twine and wrest the Scriptures 
without to cause the Scriptures to seem for it ? And suppose a 
man be deluded with a Spirit of delusion, what can help him, 
but God, whose Spirit searcheth all the deepest things of Satan, 
and can and doth discover them to those, who love to be 
undeceived, and are faithful to God, in what they certainly 
know. And though the same deluding Spirit, who deceived 
first may deceive over again, that makes nothing against the 
sufficiency of the Spirit to discover the delusion; but if a man 
be deceived either first, or again, he is to blame himself for his 
defect, in not being duly watchful and faithful, in what is dis- 
covered to him of God truly and certainly. Consider the 
tendency of thy argument, which strikes not only at the certainty 
of the Saints' faith now from the Spirit within, and the assurance 
of knowledge therefrom, but also strikes at the very certainty 
and assurance of all the faith and knowledge the holy Prophets 
and men of God had from the Spirit within, when the Scripture 
was not : We are in no greater hazard to be deceived now 
than they were then. You that set up the Scripture, as your 
only rule, the many sects of you, what jangling and contesting 
is among you, while one pleads for his sense, and another for 
his ! Which all proceeds from their wandering from the Spirit, 
that gave forth the Scriptures. And as to satisfying of others, 
we refer and recommend them to the same Spirit in them, to 
receive their satisfaction from that, which only can and will 
satisfy them who wait for it in singleness. 

" Thou sayest, they are said to be a killing letter, and this 
shews, that they are not dead. Answer, A poor argument 
indeed ! cannot dead things kill, if men feed upon them ? If 
thou feedest upon sand, gravel stones, shells, will not these 
things kill thee, though they be dead ? And if thou feedest 
upon the letter without thee, and not upon the life, thou canst 



149 

not live ; yea, if one that lived, did depart from feeding upon 
the life, to feed upon the letter, it would kill him. And as for 
that Scripture cited by thee, it makes very much against thee, to 
wit, Isaiah lix, 21. For it is one thing, for God to put words 
into men's mouths, and quite another for men to gather these 
words from that without and put them into their own mouths ; 
nor doth it say, that the words God shall put into their mouths, 
shall be no other words more or less, but the express Scripture 
words/' 



Richard Claridge on the Holy Scriptures, from Bes- 
ses Defence, — u Now though we believe, the immediate 
Inspiration which we have is from the same Holy Spirit that 
inspired the Prophets and Apostles, and through them gave 
forth the Holy Scriptures ; yet we do not say it is the same 
Inspiration for degree which they had, but that it is the same 
for kind'" 

" Whereas the immediate inspiration we'plead for, makes all 
outward means the more useful ; being that alone which ena- 
bles men to discover true doctrine from false, and counterfeit 
pretenders from truly inspired ministers. 

" The Apostle proposeth this anointing in them, as a more 
certain touchstone for them to discern and try seducers by, even 
than his own writings ; for having in the former verse said, that 
he had written some things to them, concerning such as seduced 
them, he begins the next verse, l but the anointing, &c, and ye 
need not that any man teach you, &c.' which infers,, that having 
said to them what can be said, he refers them for all to the 
inward anointing (which teaches all things) as the most firm 
constant and certain bulwark against all seducers. 

a And lastly, ' that it is a lasting and continuing thing ; the 
anointing which abideth, if it had not been to abide in them, it 
could not have taught them all things, neither guided them 
against all hazard/" 



2o 



150 

George Whitehead on Divine Inspiration. — " See 
here how he hath shut out all Divine Light, Spirit, and God's 
immediate teaching, both from being in us, and from being any 
certain rule (though we do not oppose what the Spirit teacheth, 
to Christ's doctrine ; for the Spirit teacheth the same immedi- 
ately, yet what is it but to promote Atheism, to exclude God, 
and Christ, and Spirit, and Light within, as no certain rule, and 
to exalt the Scriptures above them all, and to give the Scriptures 
that high epithet they no where give themselves, as adequate rule 
of inward motions and inclinations ? — whereas the inward light 
of Christ, which makes manifest all things that are reproved, is 
therefore the most suitable rule to try inward motions ; for unto 
this light he that doeth truth cometh, that his deeds may be 
manifest that they are wrought in God ; and it is the same light 
that reproveth the evil deeds of those that hate it, see John iii. 19, 
20, 21. As to his saying that the doctrine contained in the 
Scripture is the rule of faith and practice ; he should rather 
have said, a rule subordinate to the great rale of faith and 
practice; to wit — that divine light which was the true Prophets' 
and Apostles' rule, in giving forth the Scripture ; and is now 
the true believers' rule in truly believing, understanding, and 
obeying the wholesome doctrine contained in them ; which none 
truly own, but they who believe in the light, and follow and 
walk in trig Spirit, which the doctrine of Christ and his Apostles 
directs men to. Again, it manifestly tends to Atheism to con- 
clude that no divine or saving illumination is immediately 
conveyed to man's soul by his Maker, but only by such mediums 
as the Scriptures, or man's teaching ; for then — what is man, 
and in what capacity is his soul, before he either know the 
Scriptures or have man's teaching? Or, if there be nothing of a 
divine nature., life, or light in men immediately from God, who 
have not those outward means, how are their souls immortal, 
and capable of future rewards ? And what better than a beast 
doth it render man (as to a future condition) to suppose he hath 
no divine life and illumination from this maker ; but only that 
all must be infused into him instrumentally, through his natural 



151 

organs or sense ? And how should he receive a Gospel minis- 
try, or advantage by it, if he have no Gospel light in him, 
before conveyed to his soul immediately by his maker himself V* 

Naked Truth : By Isaac Pexingtox,— -" Quest. Whether 
the Scriptures can be understood aright, without the light of 
God's Holy Spirit shining inwardly in the heart, and giving the 
true understanding of them ? 

" Answer. No ; not possibly. For as the outward eye cannot 
possibly see without the shining of some outward light, no more 
can the inward eye see without the shining of the inward light. 
God, who commanded light to shine out of darkness, causeth 
the light of his Spirit to shine in the hearts of people accord- 
ing to his holy pleasure, and thereby they come to see. No 
man is, or ever was, or ever can be, converted to God from the 
inward law of sin and death, but by the inward law of life 
and righteousness written in the heart ; and I am sure that law- 
is perfect, the new covenant is perfect, and the law thereof per- 
fect; the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus perfect, which 
converts the mind to Christ the righteousness of God, and sets 
it free from the law of sin and death. And David was a spirit- 
ual man, and knew the inward covenant, and the inward creat- 
ing of the heart anew, and God's holy and free Spirit, and the 
law and testimony thereof. I will grant a great deal to the 
letter and ministration outward, but I must attribute more to 
the inward ; or else God's light, and the holy experience which 
he hath given me, will condemn me. And as the Jew out- 
ward had the law r , and testimony, and statutes outward; so I 
am sure the true Jew, the Jew inward, hath the law, and testi- 
mony, and statutes inward, written in his heart by the finger of 
God's Spirit; yea, and the same Spirit put within him, to cause 
him to keep this law, and the holy testimony, statutes, and 
judgments of the Lord ; and the spiritual Jacob, and Israel of 
God, in this the day of their redemption, and salvation from on 
high, do follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes, and walk in 
the light of the Lord. 



152 

" Quest. Whether all things necessary to salvation be con- 
tained in the Scriptures ? 

"Answer. The Scriptures give testimony concerning the one 
thing necessary to salvation ; but the thing itself, Christ himself , 
the seed itself, is not contained in the Scriptures, but revealed 
in the shinings of the true light, and so received or rejected in- 
wardly in the heart: ' Behold, I stand at the door and knock. 7 
Blessed are they that hear his voice, and believe him knocking, 
and open to him, and receive him, who gives eternal life and 
power to become sons of God to as many as receive him, and 
believe in, and give up to, the inward revealings of his redeem- 
ing arm and power therein. c To whom is the arm of the Lord 
revealed ? ' To them in whom and to whom this arm is revealed, 
Christ is revealed ; and they in whom and to whom Christ is 
revealed, know the one thing necessary, even him who is life 
eternal, in whom all other necessary things are wrapped up, 
and by whom they are conveyed to the soul, according to its 
need, by him who is faithful in all his house, and takes care of 
every sheep which the Father committeth to him." 



CONCLUSION. 

Well, time hastens on apace, and I must hasten 
towards a conclusion. We have now had ample proof 
of what the sentiments of more than " one of the most 
eminent of our Early Friends," really icere upon several 
important points. I might have transcribed many 
whole pieces, which press something close upon the 
point ; but here is amply sufficient for the purpose. 
Here is nothing left for construction, cavil or misre- 
presentation. Here are " hirelings and deceivers," and 
their works of darkness exposed in the forcible language 
of truth, in a simplicity of style, and a power of 
expression, though I trust not with a severity, far 
exceeding the severity of the chastisement which the 
same generation and their works, have received in 
" The Truth Vindicated." We have seen the light 
which lighteth every man, &c. to be the fundamental 
principle and "foundation" upon which the society was 
originally based, and that it was held in a sense to be 
•' the only means under heaven appointed of God, 5 ' &e. 
We have seen the Scriptures so far as their own essential 
power is concerned, " described as the letter which kil- 
leth/' We have here abundant evidence of the sentiments 
of our early Friends, ''respecting the formatiou of the 
canon of Scripture," and many of those "shameless 
declarations, 5 ' so offensive to the extreme sensibility of 
our " Stricture" maker's nerves. We have no mean 



154 

specimen of "the hackneyed objection about trans- 
cription, translation," &c. and " precisely the argument 
which has so often been adduced against Protestants by 
Roman Catholics/' may here be seen in its pristine vi- 
gour. The rule of faith— the judge of controversy— £fo? 
ultimate appeal — the "taunting inquiries respecting the 
parts of Scripture which we would select for our test" 
—the denomination which " involves the danger of a 
very fatal heresy" — the Gospel — the identity of that 
source from which all Holy Scripture proceeds — the 
(< spiritual and inward Scripture," are all here treated of 
in the words of our early Friends themselves. They 
stand forth an undeniable refutation of the " Stricture" 
maker's assertion that " the author of * The Truth 
Vindicated/ who comes forward under the profession 
of being an advocate for our religious society, advances 
sentiments extremely dangerous in themselves, and 
utterly opposed to those which Friends have always felt it 
to be their duty and privilege to uphold." I have asked 
our fathers and they have shewn us ; our elders, and 
they have told us ; yes, the written testimonies of those 
champions and sufferers for the truth have been ap- 
pealed to, and Fox, Barclay, Penn, Fisher, and others, 
who " though dead yet speak," have been heard through 
those precious records to declare with one unanimous 
voice, The Fact is otherwise. 

It should not be lost sight of, that my object in 
writing " The Truth Vindicated/' was to defend the 
ancient testimonies of the society, against the attacks of 
bitter opponents, as also to stimulate the society itself 
to a steady and faithful adherence to them. Had the 
author of the a Strictures " been a true Friend, the ob- 



155 

ject which originated in a sense of duty would have been 
dear to him, and he would not have sought occasion to 
put constructions not only at variance with the object in 
view, but also with many express declarations contained 
in the work itself. Although an acknowledged minister 
of the same society as were those honest and unflinch- 
ing declaimers against "the mystery of iniquity," 
whose sentiments are so fully transcribed on these 
pages, yet does he denounce the merited castigation 
they have received, as the result of an " anti- christian 
spirit and temper, and characterizes the language in 
which the reprehension is conveyed, as " unseemly and 
violent." And this is the man, who professing a sort 
of horror at the statement of incontrovertible truths ; 
who betraying a sensitiveness leading one to suppose 
that he would almost faint at the odour of a rose, can 
nevertheless conceal the rough thistle, in a bouquet of 
smooth expressions, and thrust it full into one's face- — 
wrath, strife, an evil eye — a corrupt and wicked heart — 
a poisoner — a shameless declaimer — & false and audacious 
propounder — a hypocrite — a denier of Christ come in 
the flesh — an infidel — a deist, is a specimen of the 
seemly and gentle language, which expressly or inferen- 
tially he has employed in reference to the author of 
" The Truth Vindicated.'' 

As for deism, the charge is about as rational and true 
as that of manslaughter. This addition might have 
added to its falsity, though I much doubt that it would 
have improved upon its absurdity ; for how the former 
charge could be made, without the author's supposing 
that with the generality of his readers almost any thing 
he wrote would be believed, I cannot well imagine ; 



156 

but though this may "pass the limits of my concep- 
tion," it possibly comes within the range of " our 
author's." 

The brief and fair summing up of the doctrines in 
these passages of " The Truth Vindicated/' can be 
safely left to the impartiality of all who have read thus 
far. Nothing farther I feel persuaded is needed from 
me, to expose the unfairness of this writer, and to show 
that this summing up is no more than a train of 
misrepresentations, condensed into conclusions which 
constitute an appropriate sequel to the ingenuous 
prelude 

I have now nearly done with the " Strictures," and 
in taking my leave of them, I feel at liberty to say, 
that whether this reply shall prove satisfactory to the 
author or not, it is not my intention to extend the 
controversy between us, beyond these pages. The 
" Strictures" themselves have been rendered compara- 
tively harmless, if not totally destroyed, page by page, 
and almost line b}^ line as we have proceeded, the effect 
therefore designed by this reply, has been so far 
obtained. I have used a weapon (irony) which on 
subjects of a religious nature, is best to dispense with 
when others can be employed with equal advantage ; 
and which requires at all times a skilful hand to 
wield it aright, but more especially on occasions like the 
present. Whether it has been so wielded it is not for 
me to judge ; but the " Strictures" themselves, pre- 
sented so much of that opinionated opposition, which is 
grounded on the mere strength of name and station, 
and yet withal so cunningly concealed s that I almost 
felt myself constrained to use it. But whilst I have 



157 

expressed my sentiments with freedom, and refuted 
with an earnestness of manner the errors and false 
charges contained in the *'■ Strictures," I have sought to 
have my mind covered with Christian love ; in the 
living sense of which I can most unreservedly forgive 
my defamer, and sincerely wish him well. Far be it 
from me to wound the tender-hearted, or to lay a stone 
of stumbling in the pathway of the humble traveller 
towards Zion. Far be it from me to break " the 
bruised reed,' 1 or to hurt that which is good in any. 
This, I feel satisfied I have no done, It is with " powers 
and principalities/' with spiritual pride, that I have 
made war, and these alone will feel the blow T s. Imper- 
fect, unworthy, weak, and of myself " a worm and no 
man," I trust I am made reverently sensible of the 
necessity of continued watchfulness, and an unshaken 
reliance upon Him who made Joseph " a fruitful bough, 
even a fruitful bough by a well ; whose branches run 
over the wall." And I doubt if there are many, who 
have more cause to be thankful for that internal 
evidence to the divine authority of Holy Scriptures 
than myself, an evidence productive of results, which 
all the " literal critics " in the world could never yet 
produce. 

Great darkness, great formality, great deadness, has 
prevailed among us as a body, and great disunion in 
sentiment most obviously exists. With such discordant 
materials how should a body be fitly compacted to- 
gether ? The thing is impossible, unless the great Head 
of the church shall be graciously pleased to build us 
up. To Him let our prayers be directed, who is the 
great " healer of breaches, and restorer of paths to 



15S 

dwell mJ T With hearts humbled and broken under a 
deep and painful sense of our unfaithfulness and back- 
slidings as a people, let us go in the name of Jesus to 
the throne of grace, and, casting down all our crowns 
at his feet, let us supplicate of his mercy forgiveness,, 
and that he would grant us " counsellers as at the 
first, and judges as at the beginning/ ' 

It will not be my lot to be with you during the 
approaching Yearly Meeting; but "though absent in 
body, I shall be present in spirit." May your Meetings 
be blessed and crowned with the living presence of the 
Almighty, may his Spirit rest upon you, direct and 
enlighten you. May true judgment guide your deli- 
berations, and the love of God warm your hearts with 
brotherly kindness one to another. May that be judged 
down, which opposes itself to truth, and all things be 
ordered in wisdom and moderation ; then shall ye 
assuredly know your ' ' bow to abide in strength, and 
your arms to be made strong by the hands of the 
mighty God of Jacob. " 



PINIS. 



London : Printed by J. Masters, 1, Long Lane, Aldersgrate Street. 



JUST PUBLISHED, 

Price 6s. on royal 12mo. paper, with engraved Portrait. 

THE 

LIFE OF THOMAS EDDY, 

OF NEW YORK : 

COMPRISING 

AN EXTENSIVE CORRESPONDENCE 

WITH MANY OF 

gf)£ most Distinguish Philosophers antJ PJnlmttippopists 

OF THIS AND OTHER COUNTRIES. 

BY SAMUEL L. KNAPP. 



AN OBITUARY NOTICE OF THOMAS EDDY. 

From the National Gazette, Philadelphia. 

" An obituary notice of Thomas Eddy of New York, was copied 
into our sheet yesterday, from the New York papers. It bears a 
just testimony, which we were glad to repeat, and to which we would 
add an humble tribute on our own part, arising from personal 
acquaintance, and a deep impression of the excellence of his 
character. Unaffected, inexhaustible goodness ; sound sense : 
extensive information on the practical interests and objects of 
society; anxious, indefatigable benevolence — were the leading- 
traits which gained for him an extraordinary share of fond esteem 
and confidence, wherever he was known. He belonged to the 
religious denomination of Friends, (of that party called " Ortho- 
dox," as distinguished from the followers of Hicks,) and in the mo- 
dest simplicity of his tone and habits, and the directness, equa- 
nimity, and tolerance of his spirit, as well as by the absolute 
usefulness of his pursuits and studies, he seemed to realize the pic- 
ture wmich William Penn himself sketched, as that of a genuine 
disciple, and a true Christian, in his interpretation of Christianity. 



"There are few, we believe, of the splendid internal improve- 
ments of the foundations of social charity, or the plans for the 
amelioration of public morals and education, that have signalized, 
during the present century, the judgment, benevolence, and enter- 
prise of New York, with which the name of Thomas Eddy is not 
connected, with more or less original and acknowledged merit. He 
was among the first projectors and promoters of the Grand Canal; 
he took a principal part m the establishment and administration of 
hospitals, penitentiaries, high schools, and houses of refuge ; he 
entered into all their details with equal zeal and intelligence ; he 
read, he wrote, he travelled, almost without intermission, for pur- 
poses of common good or special humanity : — he united the bias 
and "exertions of a Howard and a Benezet, to those propensities 
and inquiries which immediately advance the trade, agriculture, 
and general comfort and beauty of a State. This is a rare combi- 
nation of tastes and endeavours, and in him it was not in the least 
ostentatious or officious, but wore a natural, easy, unobtrusive air, 
suitable to his whole mien and style, and never failed to prove 
efficient, when it had scope and encouragement. So beneficent a 
being is now enjoying a rest happier than that of any of his 
rac,e who worshipped at shrines of false glory, and wearied their 
powers in seeking or achieving the triumphs of ambition, vanity, 
or avarice. We have seen men of stout hearts, but kindred dis- 
positions, moved to tears, in first contemplating Thomas Eddy 
after a certain period of separation. We never approached him 
without experiencing a moral refreshment, analogous to the phy- 
sical sensation produced by a pure, elastic, balmy atmosphere. 
The same delightful influence is always shed, in a measure, by 
veteran, unequivocal, active virtue ; but theartlessnessand serenity 
attending the source in this instance, the plain dress, the homely 
visage, the kindly eye, the chastened tone, and unsophisticated 
reason, caused it to be felt by more minds with superior force. It 
is merely justice to add, that the individuals and circles with 
whom this philanthropist communed and acted in New York, 
appreciated and honoured his peculiar worth, and will long praise 
and cherish his genial memory. All were alive to that spontaneous 
and invariable emanation of goodness which we have just noticed 
— all must be aware of its rarity, and regret its loss in any one 
example." 



LONDON: 
EDMUND FRY AND SON, BISHOPSGATE STREET ; 

AND EDMUND FRY, JI7N., PLYMOUTH. 



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